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THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 



The 

NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

BY 
FREDERIC S. DENNIS, M.D. 



Illustrated from photographs 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 



F" / c-^' 



Copyrighted, 191T by 
FREDERIC S. DENNIS 



AUG -9 1917 

©G!.Amri87 



DEDICATED 

IN LOVING MEMORY 

TO 

WHO WAS BORN IN A HOUSE 
NEAR THE GREEN 

WHO PLAYED IN HER CHILDHOOD 
UPON THE GREEN 

WHO LIVED MANY YEARS IN A 
HOUSE BUILT ON THE GREEN 

WHO WAS MARRIED IN A MEETING HOUSE 
FACING THE GREEN 



FOREWORD 

This brochure, published for private circulation only, 
will attain its object if it inspires the sacred duty of 
preserving the beautiful Village Green of Norfolk, 
and of handing it down in all its glory of historical 
tradition, local association and natural beauty, to 
future generations. As all the village greens of New 
England have a certain common significance, it opens 
with a description of them in general, and passes on to 
describe in detail the Norfolk Green, and to narrate 
the principal events that have occurred upon it. 

The inspiration to write a brief historical sketch of 
my mother's birthplace was derived from the words of 
Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge in one of his Thanksgiving 
sermons, in which he said : "It is a duty of filial piety, 
as well as gratitude to the supreme disposer of events, 
to gather up, and preserve, and transmit all the me- 
morials we can, of the labors, trials and achievements 
of those who have preceded us on the spot where we 
dwell." 

A chronological table giving a brief history of the 
town from its incorporation to the pesent time is 
added. 

Norfolk, Ct., June, 1917. 



CONTENTS 

I. Origin and Uses of the New England Vil- 
lage Green 1 

II. Buildings About the New England Vil- 
lage Green 25 

III. Around the Norfolk Green .... 49 
IV. Events That Occurred on the Norfolk 

Green 69 

V. Incidents and Activities Associated with 

the Norfolk Green 81 

Summary of Dates of Principal Events in 
THE History of Norfolk ..... 95 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fountain erected by Miss Mary Eldridge in 
memory of Mr. Joseph Battell . . Frontispiece 

Facing page 

Soldiers' monument near the centre of the Nor- 
folk Green 6 

A view of the centre of the Norfolk Green . . 12 

Sign post and elm tree on the northwestern corner 
of the Norfolk Green 22 

The Norfolk Town Hall facing the Green . . 28 

The Norfolk Meeting House situated on the 
Green 52 

"The White House" residence of Mr. and Mrs. 
Carl Stoeckel 56 

The Shepard Tavern, built in 1794, .... 58 

Residence of Rev. Wm. F. Stearns, formerly 
owned by Mr. A. L. Dennis and later by Mr. 
and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel 60 

Residence of Miss Mary and Miss Isabella El- 
dridge 62 

The Stone Chapel on the Green 64 

View of the Norfolk Green and the Library . . 78 

View of the railroad station and the bridge at the 
northeastern corner of the Green .... 90 

Community Christmas tree decorated by Mrs. 
H. H. Bridgman 92 



ORIGIN AND USES OF THE NEW 
ENGLAND VILLAGE GREEN 



ORIGIN AND USES OF THE NEW 
ENGLAND VILLAGE GREEN 

THE study of the origin of the Village Green 
carries us back to the early history of communal 
arrangements in country life ; for it embraces the sub- 
ject of communal possession of land as contrasted 
with individual ownership. It was this idea together 
with the idea of self-protection that produced the 
New England Village Green. Many centuries ago 
the idea of common ownership of land for economic 
reasons was prevalent, and in the early settlement of 
this country a germ of the original idea was inherent 
in the formation of the Green, but in addition the 
Green served as a central rallying point for the de- 
fense against the hostile Indians. As in later days the 
communal ownership was not required for economic 
reasons, or for self-defense, but for aesthetic and useful 
public purposes, the Village Green became the 
business centre of the town. The writer has consulted 
Biblical literature to see if any reference can be found 

[3] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

in ancient times to a place set apart for the same pur- 
poses as the Village Green of modern times. The 
word "The Gate" is often used in Scripture to desig- 
nate a place of pubhc assemblies. This must not be 
mistaken for the Agora, or Forum, or Basilica of 
Greek or Roman origin, which were places for other 
purposes in which the Jews, the Christians and Pagans 
could share. It must not be confused with the Mak- 
tesh or common market-place of Jerusalem. Opposite 
the opening in the city wall of Jerusalem is mentioned 
a square where the people gathered. Harold 
B. Hunting, in his recently pubHshed book "The 
Story of Our Bible," gives a graphic descrip- 
tion of a place called "The Gate," from which the 
following facts are gleaned: This public place 
is called in the Bible "The Gate" and it corresponds 
to the Green or common of the present day. At "The 
Gate" or square the people gathered to hear the news, 
to meet neighbors and friends and to exchange views 
upon the ordinary topics of the day. At "The Gate" 
the children played their games, the Judges convened 
to settle disputes among the farmers, and the Wise 
Men gathered to teach. It was at "The Gate" at 
Jerusalem that these Wise Men uttered their sayings 
that were collected and formed in great part the book 
of Proverbs. At "The Gate" individuals met by ap- 
pointment to arrange between themselves some pri- 

[4] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

vate affair or some special business, and here public 
conferences were held, and discussions took place on 
all matters of public interest. Thus it is evident that 
even a thousand years more or less before the birth of 
Christ the germ of the Village Green existed and that 
centuries previous to the greatest event that ever hap- 
pened in this world the Village Green had its proto- 
type and that the history of the Green or common is 
nearly as old as the history of man. 

In the New England Village Green the Meeting 
House was first built, and the Green laid out in front 
of it. The tavern, the town hall, the post-office, the 
court house, the school house, and other public build- 
ings were then placed round The Green for con- 
venience. Besides these institutions there usually 
cluster around The Green those old Colonial resi- 
dences which form a most attractive feature of the 
New England village, and in the early Colonial days 
there were placed upon it the whipping post, the 
stocks, the pillory, and other implements of torture 
which have now become obsolete. 

The Green naturally became in early days the place 
of gathering for celebrations of all kinds ; the rendez- 
vous for voting in town elections; the trysting place 
for lovers ; the location for sign boards, and mile stones 
leading out of the village; the place for town warn- 
ings and calls for town meetings. It was the arena for 

[5] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

all sorts of athletic sports, such as base ball, foot ball, 
wicket playing, jumping, wrestling, tugs of war, and 
foot and horse races. It was the scene of military 
exercises and church and Simday school picnics as 
well as for the display of merchandise, and a coinmon 
rendezvous of soldiers departing for the French, 
Indian, Revolutionary, Civil, Spanish, Mexican and 
German wars. It has even been the site of the gallows 
upon which public hangings have taken place. It has 
always been the place for the erection of memorial 
tablets, monuments, and statues to commemorate the 
valor of the dead. 

The Village Green in Colonial days was a rendez- 
vous for the people in their agricultural fairs, thus 
obviating the cost and maintenance of special fair 
grounds, which are found now in many towns where 
these exhibitions occur. A cattle show, even in 
1916, was held on the Green in East Hartland, Ct. 

A characteristic feature of the Village Greens of 
early times was the absence of shade trees ; with few 
exceptions this seems to have been the rule. In these 
modern times, when the Village Green is kept up, the 
presence of shade trees is as characteristic as their ab- 
sence was formerly ; — some of the New England Vil- 
lage Greens possess many beautiful and picturesque 
shade trees. 

Many historic events have taken place on the Vil- 

[6] 




SOLDIERS MONUMENT NEAR CENTER OF THE NORFOLK GREEN 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

lage Green. There was the "training field" of the 
first Republic in the memorable years of 1775-1776: 
this fact alone gives to the Green a dignity and honor 
peculiar to itself. Few realize now what training day 
meant on the Green. The feeling of patriotism was 
dominant in the minds of our early ancestors and was 
manifested in many ways. An amusing anecdote has 
been handed down which appeared in the published 
account of the 200th anniversary of the Con- 
gregational Church in Little Compton, R. I., il' 
lustrating its fervor. It is said of Col. Rich- 
mond, who was making a visit to his brother 
Barzillai, that during morning devotions after the 
Bible reading, when prayer was about to be offered, 
he interrupted the proceedings with: "I have been 
here now three days and every morning you have 
prayed and haven't mentioned the American Con- 
gress, nor prayed for the success of the American 
arms. Now, by God! if you don't this morning I'll 
knock you down with this cane when you say Amen." 
Irreverent as this may seem, it illustrates the intensity 
of patriotic feeling that then prevailed. 

In this same town the manoeuvres of the Little 
Compton Home Guards took place on the commons 
or green during the Civil War. The company con- 
sisted of forty men under the command of General 
N. T. Church, momited on a prancing black charger, 

[7] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

in all the gorgeous paraphernalia that it was possible 
to wear. The httle company marched over the Green, 
a village Squire beating the drum, his boy playing 
the fife. 

The record of the Village Green at Concord illus- 
trates in a forcible manner the uses of the New Eng- 
land Green and its relation to the conmiunity from 
shortly after the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620 down 
to the present day. It is rich in historical events and in 
the distinguished men whose names are associated 
with it. This Green may be taken as typical of New 
England Greens since all had the same origin and 
uses, though less fortunate in the possession of illus- 
trious names. Emerson says of the Concord Green 
that "the stars stoop down over the brownest, homeli- 
est common with all the spiritual magnificence which 
they shed on the marble deserts of Egypt." 

It was on this Green that Emerson and Channing 
spoke in words of eloquence which thrilled the entire 
country. Here strolled Winthrop and Dudley and 
Paul Revere ; and later it saw Emerson, Hawthorne, 
Thoreau and Alcott, George William Curtis, Edward 
Everett, Judge Hoar, Theodore Parker, Miss Steb- 
bins, Charlotte Cushman, Margaret Fuller, Whittier, 
Channing, Wendell Phillips, Longfellow, Lowell, 
James Freeman Clarke, Bancroft, Daniel Webster, 
John Elliot, French the sculptor of the Minute man 

[8] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

monument, Dyar of whom it is said that he "erected 
the first real hne and dispatched the first message over 
it by electricity ever sent by such means in America," 
Monroe the benefactor, and a long list of other famous 
men and women. In 1741 George Whitfield, the cele- 
brated Evangehst, preached in the open air on the 
Concord Green, and it is said of him that his "silver 
voice melted his great congregation into tears." 

It is a most strange historical coincidence that on 
April 19, 1689, the Concord militia was assembled on 
the Village Green and started from there for Boston 
to overthrow Governor Andros; that on April 19, 
1775, at the very same hour, the militia was again 
assembled on the Concord Green to begin the fight of 
the Revolutionary war; that on April 19, 1812, the 
militia was again called out to participate in the second 
war with Great Britain; that on April 19, 1848, the 
soldiers met on the Concord Green to take up arms to 
fight in the Mexican war; that on April 19, 1861, the 
Concord Green was the place of assembly and the 
starting point of the brave boys to fight in the Civil 
War; and that on April 19, 1898, resolutions were 
passed by the Concord Mihtia to respond to the call 
for troops for the Spanish war. It was in April, 
1917, that the United States declared war against 
Germany and on the 19th of April this anniversary 
was observed and celebrated throughout the country. 

[9] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

The 19th of April is Patriot's day in Massachusetts 
and the principal incident was the trip of a horseback 
rider impersonating Paul Revere and in every city 
and town along the way he gave the alarm of the Brit- 
ish attack. Finally it was on the 19th of April, 1917, 
that the American ship Mongolia fired the first shot 
at a submarine in the war with Germany. 

On this Green stood the first Parish Meeting 
House, erected in 1712, where the first Provincial 
Congress was held in 1774. Facing it stood the 
famous Wright tavern, built in 1747, where, on the 
19th of April, 1775, Major Pitcairn, the British 
officer said that "before the day was over he would 
stir the damned Yankee blood as well." Here stood 
also the Town House, "from whose turret rang out 
the bell that called the farmers to arms in 1775"; and 
the first one to respond to the alarm on the Green was 
the Rev. Wm. Emerson, the grandfather of Ralph 
Waldo Emerson, who came with his musket on his 
shoulder. On this Green was the store house for the 
war materials, which dm*ing the preceding winter, 
1774, had been collected by patriotic citizens. Here 
the inhabitants of Concord assembled and "forbade 
the justices to open the court of sessions in conse- 
quence of a new British law which made the judges 
subservient to the crown." This Green was the place 
where the first steps were taken to overthrow British 

[10] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEIST 

authority. Here too it was voted to raise one or more 
companies of minute men who should be ready at a 
moment's notice to march against the British forces. 
This Green is indeed memorable in history as the 
scene of one of the greatest events in the world; for 
here and on the Lexington Green the Revolutionary 
war was begun, to terminate in the creation of a great 
and new Republic the blessings of which we enjoy at 
the present time. Thus, on this Green, as President 
Dwight said, was "prefaced the history of a nation, 
the beginning of an empire." These interesting facts 
have been taken from "The Story of Concord." 

Among New England Greens the Fairfield Green 
is one of unusual historical interest in connection with 
the development and growth of this nation. The im- 
portant happenings on this Village Green afford an- 
other illustration of the multitudinous purposes for 
which a Green can serve. In studying the Fairfield 
Green it is apparent that the general plan has been 
observed ; in fact it was among the first Greens in New 
England, and an example which other towns in New 
England have closely followed. Here were situated 
the Meeting House, the Jail, the School House, the 
Inn, the Whipping Post, the Stocks, the Colonial 
houses. The writer takes the liberty to borrow some 
facts from Child's hand book of local history of Fair- 
field, presented to him by his friend, the Hon. John 

[11] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

H. Perry, whose renowned ancestors played such an 
important role in the history of Fairfield ; 

Religious services were held on the Fairfield 
Green in 1640 and in turn all the events which usually 
happen on Village Greens in general have taken place 
on this Green, and in addition there are some special 
events pecuhar to Fairfield and worthy of special 
mention. It was on this Green that Ludlow in 1653 
drilled his soldiers in preparation for an attack upon 
the Dutch. It was here that the witches were thrown 
into a pond on the west side of the Green. It was 
here that some of the ablest lawyers during a period of 
over two hundred years gathered in the court house 
and walked across this memorable Green. It was here 
in 1681 that a stone stockade was built around the 
Green to protect the town from attack by the Indians. 
It was here that Col. Andrew Burr drilled his soldiers 
to fight against the Indians and French and later 
General Silliman drilled the militia to take part in the 
Revolutionary war. It was on this Green that the 
Continental soldiers under General Whiting en- 
camped after the burning of Fairfield in 1779. On 
this Green after this conflagration by Gen. Tryon the 
citizens also encamped. On this Green in 1812 the 
mihtia was drilled to fight the British and in 1815 a 
great celebration was held in honor of the declaration 
of Peace. Thousands were assembled on the Green 

[12] 







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THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

and bands of music played, the bells were rung, the 
cannons were fired, and later in the day an ox was 
barbecued for the enjoyment of the people. In the 
evening a grand ball was given in Knapp's Tavern on 
the Green and the windows of every house were illu- 
minated with candles and the Green with bonfires and 
torches. 

On this same Green under the auspices of the 
Eunice Dennie Burr chapter of the American Revo- 
lution was held a great festivity in the observance of 
Independence Day. The exercises consisted of read- 
ing the Declaration of Independence, the delivery of 
patriotic speeches, the singing of the National An- 
thems, the playing of bands of music and the general 
observations of a gala day. 

The Fairfield Green like other New England 
Greens is surrounded by beautiful colonial houses, 
which add to the beauty of the landscape, — notable 
among them, the residence of Miss Annie Burr 
Jennings, with its beautiful and artistic garden, which 
has become so renowned among the gardens of New 
England. In addition to Miss Jennings' interest in 
cultivated flowers and formal gardens, she has per- 
formed a great work for New England in her efforts 
to preserve the wild flowers, and especially the moun- 
tain laurel — the State flower of Connecticut. 

The first battle of the Revolution was fought on the 

[13] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Village Green at Lexington in 1775 when Captain 
John Parker and seventy men met face to face six 
hundred trained British troops: where the bold Cap- 
tain uttered the famous words which are carved on a 
boulder upon the site: "Stand your ground, don't fire 
unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let 
it begin here." Eleven men were killed and ten 
wounded in this battle, which ushered in the dawn of 
American Liberty. 

One hundred years later the celebration of the Cen- 
tennial Anniversary of this first battle of the Revolu- 
tion took place on this Green, and it was estimated 
that the Lexington Green witnessed the presence of at 
least one hundred thousand people. A salute of one 
hundred guns was fired at sunrise, the statues of 
Adams and Hancock in Carrara marble were unveiled, 
the pistols of Major Pitcairn were presented by Mrs. 
John P. Putnam, a grand collation in a huge tent was 
served and in the evening a ball of great magnificence 
took place. 

The Lexington Green which was the scene of this 
great celebration was plotted out in the pres£nt dimen- 
sions in 1722. In 1824 Lafayette was welcomed, and 
in 1852 Kossuth was received, on this Green in the 
presence of a large assemblage. 

The erection of the meeting and the schoolhouse 
in connection with the Green is illustrated by the 

[1*] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEX 

Palisado Green at Windsor. John Brancker, in 
1656-7, was the first schoohnaster in that historic town 
and John Wareham was the first pastor of the church, 
and in Jenkins's interesting history of the Boston Post 
Road, is spoken of as the first minister in New Eng- 
land who preached without notes. The Pahsado 
Green was the centre of all kinds of activities, notably 
those connected with the colonial trade with England 
and the West Indies. 

On the beautiful and broad Green at West Spring- 
field a large boulder — a feature common to many 
New England Greens — bears the following inscrip- 
tion: "Here encamped Oct. 30th and 31st, 1777, 
General Riedesel and his Hessian soldiers on their way 
to Boston after Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga." 

This label was placed by the George Washington 
Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, Spring- 
field, Mass., erected A.D. 1904." 

It was on this Green that Luke Day drilled the 400 
men who belonged to the forces in Shay's rebellion. 
This fact furnishes an example of the Village Green 
as a place for drilling and training soldiers apart from 
the militia. 

The New Haven Green was in 1775 the scene of 
unusual interest: the official visit of General George 
Washington as commander in chief of the continental 
army on his way to Cambridge to inspect the troops in 

[13] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Boston. He was enthusiastically welcomed by the cit- 
izens, and by the Yale students, Noah Webster lead- 
ing the procession and playing his flute. In 1789, the 
New Haven Green was again the scene of memorable 
interest when as President of the United States of 
America Washington made his first official visit to 
New England. The President entered upon the 
Green at the corner of Church and Chapel Streets by 
a path which ran diagonally across it to the corner 
of College and Elm Streets. Mr. Howard Mansfield 
has written for the Yale Pageant of 1916 a most in- 
teresting description of this visit of President Wash- 
ington to New Haven and is here quoted in his own 
words : 

"Summoned by the joyous ringing of church bells 
the citizens in great numbers and in holiday attire are 
gathered to greet him. The undergraduates of Yale 
College who have come back for the occasion in ad- 
vance of the opening of the college year are present 
on the scene wearing their caps and gowns, and with 
them are the candidates for admission. The flag of the 
new nation is everywhere displayed with the banner 
of the new State of Connecticut. Triumphal arches 
adorned with branches of brilliant autumnal foliage 
have been erected, and as the President approaches his 
pathway under the arches is strewn with garlands by 
gaily dressed maidens. His approach is heralded by 

[16] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

the firing of the Presidential salute, and he is received 
with every mark of honor and affection and a uni- 
versal outburst of patriotic fervor. His guard of 
honor is the second company of Governor's Foot 
Guards, under the command of Captain William 
Lyon, and is preceded by its drum and fife corps play- 
ing martial music. 

"The President enters in civilian dress, on a white 
horse accompanied by his secretaries and attended by 
the Governor of the State, in civilian dress and the 
Governor's staff in appropriate uniform, all on horse- 
back. On halting after passing through the triumphal 
arches, the President is met by the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, Oliver Wolcott, the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, Pierpoint Edward, the State Treas- 
urer, Jedediah Huntington, and the Committee of the 
Legislature, on whose behalf Mr. Jas. Davenport, 
clerk of the House of Representatives, and Mr. 
George Wyllys, Secretary of the Upper House, pre- 
sent the address of welcome from the Legislature, 
which the President receives and to which he makes a 
reply amid great applause. Another address is pre- 
sented by President Stiles, of the College, specially 
representing a group of six Congregational ministers, 
who with the students, are gathered about him. To 
this address also the President replies. Following re- 
newed applause the students sing "Gaudeamus" and 

[17] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

the scene became one of unbounded enthusiasm, the 
students leading in cheers for the President. 

"After the brief ceremonies are over, the martial 
music strikes up again, and the President with the 
Governor and his Staff and the guard of honor, pro- 
ceeds across the Green acknowledging with evident 
appreciation the continuous greetings of the assembled 
citizens. The students separate and form a lane 
through which the procession passes, and then, closing 
their ranks, follow as an escort, cheering and waving 
flags. President Stiles and the ministers depart 
toward the college, the officers of the General As- 
sembly and the Members of the Legislative Committee 
retire, and the citizens disperse in different directions 
with demonstrations of continuing enthusiasm." 

The Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon in his civic oration 
upon the public Green in New Haven on May 30, 
1879, said: 

"The Green was designed not as a park or mere 
pleasure ground, but a place for public buildings, for 
military parades and exercises, for the meeting of buy- 
ers and sellers, for the concourse of the people, for all 
such public uses as were reserved of old for the Forum 
at Rome, and the Agora (called in our English Bibles 
'the market') at Athens and in more recent times for 
the great square of St. Marks in Venice, or the market 
place in many a city of those low countries with which 

[18] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

some of our founders had been familiar before their 
coming to this New World. The Green in New 
Haven was also used as a place of flogging, as the site 
of the watch tower, and location of the prison, as a 
pasture for cattle and horses. The Green was also 
used as a burial place in very early colonial days, and 
George Whitfield is said to have preached on the 
Green in 1740. The sale of slaves took place on a 
Green as late as 1825. The town elections as well as 
the colony elections took place on the green in many 
places prior to the Revolutionary war." 

The Greens in New England were the scenes of 
the receptions of Generals Washington and Rocham- 
beau. General Lafayette, Presidents Polk, Monroe, 
Jackson and Buchanan, and other dignitaries; upon 
which occasions the troops were reviewed, cannons 
were fired, the church bells were rung, the trumpets 
were sounded, bonfires blazed, and a general jubilee 
followed. 

The announcement of the election of Abraham Lin- 
coln in 1860 was made on the New Haven Green by 
the firing of cannon, and in 1861 the same Green was 
a scene of great activity when it was proclaimed that 
Fort Sumter had been fired on, and volunteers were 
called for the Civil War. 

In 1861 during the Civil War a scene was enacted 
on the Green in New Haven the description of which is 

[19] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

taken from the book of the Yale Pageant of 1916, and 
written by Mr. Edwin Oviatt : 

"Major Theodore Winthrop was killed at the be- 
ginning of the Civil War and he was the first Yale 
man and the first Union officer to fall in the war. 
Gen. Ben Butler under a flag of truce sent a mes- 
senger to request the Confederate officers to deliver 
the body of Major Winthrop. The request was re- 
spectfully granted and the body was returned to the 
Northern army and then brought to New Haven. 
The streets about the Green were draped and a mih- 
tary escort accompanied the body of Winthrop to the 
Grove St. cemetery. The soldiers 'marched with re- 
versed arms and to a dirge by its band and the tolling 
of the church bells on the Green.' " 

Over fifty years ago, the old fashioned foot ball 
game was played by the students each year on the 
northwestern corner of the New Haven Green, where 
about one hundred men on each side fought. It was 
not the scientific foot ball game introduced in the Fall 
of 1872, but a rough scrimmage among the students. 

The first horse show ever held in this country was 
on the Green at Springfield, Mass., in 1855. The 
Green at Cambridge was the scene of election for Gov- 
ernor in 1637, when John Winthrop was chosen. Mrs. 
Earle, the well-knovm writer, mentions another 
unique and beautiful scene that was observed on a 

[20] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

village Green, a prize contest for the greatest quan- 
tity of work performed on the spinning wheel. Sev- 
eral hundred young girls were seated on the Green 
with their spinning wheels, all clad in spotless white 
raiment which formed an artistic contrast to the green 
of the grass. 

One of the most unique and peculiar uses of a New 
England Green was the holding of religious services 
as they were called on the Green in Hadley. Instead 
of service in the Meeting House it was held in the 
open air in January, 1787, and the sermon was 
preached by Dr. Lyman of Hatfield, who also ex- 
horted and prayed. The audience consisted of 3,000 
soldiers under the command of General Benjamin 
Lincoln. The army was encamped north of the Meet- 
ing House and was sent for the quelling of Daniel 
Shay's rebellion. The preacher stood behind a pulpit 
of snow and preached a sermon on a cold January 
Sabbath with snow piled in drifts, and the roads 
almost impassable. 

The Boston Common was the scene of an unusual 
event when on the 16th of June, 1775, twelve hun- 
dred men with anmiunition and provisions for one day 
assembled there preparatory to their march to Bunker 
Hill and Breeds Hill under the command of Col. Wm. 
Prescott. While thus assembled a pra^^er was offered 
by President Langdon of Harvard College. In Mrs. 

[21] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Earle's book she quotes from Josselyn, who visited 
Boston in 1663 and says: "On the south there is a 
small but pleasant Common where the gallants, a Mttle 
before sunset, walk with their marmalet madams till 
the nine o'clock bell rings them home to their respec- 
tive habitations." 

The Green was frequently a place for the "standard 
constitutional," and Edward Everett Hale mentions 
the fact that George Bancroft, the historian, was in 
the habit, hke many others, of walking around the 
Boston Common every evening after his day's work 
was finished. A story is told by Miss Sanborn in ref- 
erence to Daniel Webster that illustrates a unique use 
of the Boston Common: "There is a general impres- 
sion," she saj^s, "that Mr. Webster was a heavy 
drinker and often under the influence of liquor when 
he rose to speak; as usual there are two sides to this 
question. George Ticknor of Boston told my father 
that he had been with Webster on many public occa- 
sions and never saw him overcome but once. That was 
at the Revere House in Boston where he was expected 
to speak after dinner. 'I sat next to him,' said Tick- 
nor. 'Suddenly he put his hand on my shoulder and 
whispered, "Come out and run around the Common." 
This they did and the speech was a success.' " 

The most interesting, impressive and dramatic scene 
enacted upon the Green or Common is the one de- 

[22] 




SIGN POST AND ELM TREE ON NORTH WESTERN CORNER OF THE 
NORFOLK GREEN 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

scribed by Edward Everett Hale at the celebration 
in Boston of the ending of the nineteenth century and 
the beginning of the twentieth century. It is a fitting 
chmax to the many general uses to which tliis Green 
or Common has been put. The celebration par- 
took of the character of the one at the entrance of the 
eighteenth century. Chief Justice Samuel Sewell, the 
man who hanged the witches, and who Edward Ev- 
erett Hale says, "repented of its so pathetically," re- 
cords in his diary, imder January 1, 1701, the follow- 
ing: "Just about the brake-a-day Jacob Amsden and 
three other trumpeters gave a blast with the trumpets 
on the Common. After this a poem was read which 
was written by Samuel Sewell." 

This programme formed the framework for the 
greater celebration two centuries later and as it is of so 
great interest in connection with the history of a 
Green, the writer quotes from Edward Everett Hale's 
description of it : 

"The exercises began at quarter before twelve 
o'clock Monday night, December 31, 1900, by the 
blowing of the trumpets from the State House bal- 
cony overlooking the Comimon, followed by a hymn 
sung by the Assembly, the reading of the Nineteenth 
Psalm by Edward Everett Hale, and the singing by a 
chorus of 200 voices of a hymn written two centuries 
previous by Samuel Sewell. Silence until the stroke 

[23] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

of the midnight hour and the sound of the trumpets, 
and then the Lord's Prayer said by all the people, fol- 
lowed by singing of "America." The exercises closed 
with the sounding of 'taps.' " It is not so much the 
minor celebrations, or the various common uses of the 
Green that impress the fact of its usefulness in the 
life of a community as such great celebrations as occur 
from time to time during the centuries, of which the 
one just described is a most forceful illustration. 
Without the Green how could celebrations of all kinds 
be properly held, how could traditions and anniver- 
saries be so well commemorated? Surely it is an insti- 
open: air-^ JTanuary, ^ 4^^^— and ihe^ sermon was 
tution unique in character, broad in usefulness and 
necessary to every community. 



[24] 



BUILDINGS ABOUT THE NEW 
ENGLAND VILLAGE GREEN 



II 



BUILDINGS ABOUT THE NEW 
ENGLAND VILLAGE GREEN 

IN carefully studying the New England Village 
Green there will be found to exist a general plan 
which has been adopted by nearly all communities 
since the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock 
in 1620. There are exceptions, and variations from 
the original, but as a rule the same plan has been 
followed in the laying out of every village. The fol- 
lowing will be considered in the order in which they 
are mentioned since this list embraces all the important 
buildings usually located upon the Green : The Meet- 
ing House, the Sabbath Day House, the Tavern, the 
Town Hall, the Lock-Up, the Court House, the Post 
Office, all of which are part and parcel of the Village 
Green ; in fact, the Green has been so intimately asso- 
ciated with the Meeting House that in Durham and 
elsewhere the Green is called the Meeting House 
Green. In addition there must be considered the vari- 
ous methods of public punishment practised upon the 

[27] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Green, as well as all the public usages to which it has 
been put since its origin in New England in the seven- 
teenth century. 

The ]\Ieeting House with all its details, and the 
Noon-Day House are the first to be considered from 
a chronological point of view. 

The Meeting House was always the first important 
structure on any New England Green. In fact the 
Meeting House was located with a view to having a 
Green in front of it. The Pilgrim fathers generally 
attended divine worship in the fort, whither they were 
accompanied by the men who were heavily armed, 
until 1648, when they built the first meeting house in 
Plymouth, Mass. In some New England settlements, 
however, the Pilgrims worshipped in tents or in 
private houses. In Boston, the first Meeting House, 
built in 1640, had mud walls, a dirt floor and a 
thatched roof. In other words, the first Meeting 
Houses in the seventeenth century were forts, tents, 
private houses, or log cabins with thatched roofs. 

From these crude structures the Meeting House 
began to take a different form and shape: instead of 
the log cabin, a square wooden house was built with 
a pyramidal roof, and occasionally a belfry. Mrs. 
Earle refers in her interesting book "Home Life in 
Colonial Days" to the old church at Hingham, Mass., 
which is a good example of this style of architecture. 

[28] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

It was built in 1681, and, still standing, is used as a 
place of worship at the present day. 

After the log houses and the square framed church 
with the belfry in the centre, or the flat roofed church 
with no tower or belfry, there appeared the church 
of the present day, with a wooden steeple at one end 
of the edifice after a design by Sir Christopher Wren. 

The term Meeting House was used by the Puri- 
tans because the word church was associated in their 
minds with too much "outward show." They were 
adverse to display of all kinds in church decoration, 
as well as to physical comforts and modern con- 
venience. In the course of time this extreme asceti- 
cism became to a certain extent obsolete, and the nat- 
ural sense of beauty found expression, though it has 
been suggested that the temporary decadence of the 
New England church was partly due to the absence 
of symmetry, beauty and aesthetic requirements in 
the Meeting House. 

The design of the New England Meeting House 
with the Sir Chrsitopher Wren steeple has formed 
a type which with certain modifications has been 
copied generally throughout the country. The usual 
plan of the steeple consists of a square base, which 
rises high above the main roof ridge, upon which is 
built an octagonal and narrowing tower, from which 
rises a steep, tapering spire. The tower stories placed 

[29] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

between the square base and the slender spire were 
treated in manifold ways and were ornamented by 
cornices, balustrades, pediments, scrolls, according to 
the taste of the architect. The change to the one story 
octagonally shaped structure from the square base is 
hidden by a balustrade. From the summit of this one- 
story structure the spire ascends in a most graceful 
and tapering manner. 

The steeple of the Meeting House was a watch 
tower in Revolutionary days. From the steeple of 
the Old North Church in Boston in 1775, Paul Re- 
vere received his signals by lanterns to ride from 
Charlestown to Concord to warn the people of the 
approach of the British. It was from the steeple of 
the Meeting House on Greenfield Hill in Fairfield 
that Major Talmadge watched the movements of the 
British ships along the Sound. The Wren steeple in 
Wethersfield was built in 1761, and is quite similar 
to the Old South Church in Boston, built in 1729. 

In early times the men and women sat on opposite 
sides of the Meeting House. If there was a gallery, 
the boys sat on one side and the girls on the other, and 
over the young people a tithing man watched, to 
preserve order, and to check any unseemly levity at 
the start. 

The people of the village were summoned to church 
by the blowing of a horn or a conch shell or a trum- 

[30] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

pet, or by the beating of a drum, for which the drum- 
mer received twenty shilHngs a year ; or by the firing 
of a gun, or the ringing of a bell suspended from a 
tree near the church, or a hand bell carried through 
streets and along the roads. A flag has been hoisted as 
a signal of church time, to be lowered as soon as the 
services began. The church doors were used to post 
the dates of town meetings and warnings, announce- 
ments of auction sales of live stock, and other notices. 

In addition to these notices the front doors of the 
church were places where grotesque decorations were 
observed. It was a custom when a settler killed a 
wolf to nail the head to the church, and blood could 
be seen dripping from the neck. In 1640 it was cus- 
tomary in Salem to pay any one who brought a dead 
wolf's head to the church, ten shillings, but he must 
nail it to the Meeting House and give notice to the 
selectmen. Mrs. Earle mentions one man in 1665 
who killed seven wolves, and in 1723 in Ipswich the 
wolves were so thick in the woods that children were 
not permitted to go alone, and as late as 1746 wolves 
were very abimdant in the neighboring town of 
Woodbury. 

The Meeting House, besides serving as a place for 
divine worship, was used for many other purposes. 
Just before and after the Revolutionary war it was 
utilized as a magazine for explosives, because there 

[31] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

was no fire in it and hence it was safe for the storage 
of powder. Various places in the Meeting House 
were set aside as powder rooms. Sometimes the am- 
munition was kept in the steeple, or on the beams of 
the roof, or in the stone cellar. 

The pews were usually square with high railings, 
upon the top of which was usually a small balustrade. 
The seats were fastened to the sides by meanse of 
hinges and during the long prayers the occupants of 
the pews would stand and tilt up the shelf-like seats 
in order to increase the space. When the pew-holders 
were ready to sit down the seats were allowed to fall 
with a tremendous noise. The pulpit was a very high 
platform, the summit of which was reached by stairs 
resembling those of a fire escape, but boxed and with 
doors at the bottom, so that the minister as he climbed 
them was entirely hidden at the start, and his form 
did not appear until he reached the top of the pulpit. 

The Noon Day or Sabbath House was a low, un- 
pretentious looking building, the prominent feature 
of which was a large stone chimney in the centre. It 
was used as a rendezvous for the church members 
between the morning and afternoon service. Here 
they could get warm and enjoy lunch, and fill the 
foot stoves with live coals to be carried into the Meet- 
ing House for the next service. In very cold weather 
some hired man was sent to the Sabbath Day House 

[32] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

in advance of the family in order to build a fire and 
make the Noon Day House warm. If no Noon Day 
House was built it was because the Meeting House 
was next to the tavern, where the women enjoyed 
sitting by the fire and men gathered in the bar room 
to participate in old New England rum or flip until 
the time of service arrived. 

Later horse sheds were built, but not to any extent 
until after the Revolutionary war. These sheds did 
not come into vogue until chaises and wagons were 
used: not until as late as 1796 was it voted to erect 
a horse shed in connection with the Meeting House. 

The first stove in a New England Meeting House 
was that in Hadley in 1734. The Old South Church 
of Boston had a stove in 1783, but these were excep- 
tions to the general rule. As late as 1819 one church 
in New England refused to pay for a stove, but or- 
dered double doors to keep out the drafts from the 
galleries. The little foot stoves were used by the 
women, and, though strange, it is said on good au- 
thority that the men would bring their dogs to church 
and make them lie on their feet to keep them warm 
during the long service. Sometimes it was so cold 
that the communion bread was frozen. 

Apropos of stoves, it might be mentioned that the 
Norfolk church installed a stove in 1831, and the 
neighboring church of Winchester Centre in 1833. 

[33] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

It is reported that in one case at least, a small stove 
was set up in the pulpit and the minister would stop 
a moment during his sermon, replenish the fire with 
fresh wood, and then proceed. 

The village Inn or Tavern or Ordinary stood next 
in importance to the Meeting House. It was usually 
situated on the Village Green, and in close proximity 
to the Meeting House. In fact in very early colonial 
days the location of the Tavern near the Meeting 
House was a sine qua non of its existence. For ex- 
ample, in the seventeenth century license for the Tav- 
ern was granted only on condition that its location 
should be near the ]Meeting House: there is recorded 
the granting of such a license in 1651 on this condi- 
tion; this curious intimacy of church and tavern is 
illustrated by the fact that in Little Compton, R. L, 
a Meeting House, after having been used for years 
as a place of worship, was transformed into a tavern 
for the benefit of the public. 

It is interesting to inquire into the reason of the 
establishment of the Meeting House and the Tavern 
in such close proximity. In the first place, the New 
England Tavern in the seventeenth century had an 
altogether different status from that of the eighteenth 
century. In those early days there was no traveling 
public. The first post boy to ride between New York 
and Boston went in 1673, and it was not until the 

[34] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

advent of the stage coach, at the middle of the 
eighteenth century, or at the beginning of the nine- 
teenth, that the necessity for a Tavern arose. Travel- 
ing for business or pleasure was not customary until 
then, when the necessity of a place of rest during long 
journeys was felt. For this purpose the Tavern 
came to be an essential part of the life of a com- 
mimity. 

Previous to the introduction of the stage coach the 
Tavern or Ordinary existed for different reasons. Its 
location next to the Meeting House was for the con- 
venience not of travelers, but of the community itself, 
and in its equipment no provision was made to keep 
people over night, except perhaps one bedroom, scan- 
tily furnished and poorly adapted to the convenience 
and comfort of a weary traveler. The use of the 
Tavern in those early days was for drinking the mug 
of ale or New England rum; for social gatherings; 
for town meetings; for the dissemination of news; 
for the comfort of church-goers between services ; for 
public dinners and for political meetings: it was a 
centre for the exchange of opinions and information 
upon every conceivable subject. 

To the student of early colonial history the reason 
for the presence and location of the Tavern becomes 
apparent. In those early daj'^s church attendance was 
compulsory, and heating in the JMeeting House was 

[ 3-> ] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

prohibited. The service was very long and the church 
very cold in spite of the little foot stoves. Only in 
the Tavern could one find food and drink and 
warmth, and an opportunity to discuss the news of 
the town. The adjournment of a town meeting to the 
Inn occurred for the same reason. It is little wonder 
that later the business of the town was transacted at 
the Inn instead of at the Meeting House, and that 
town notices and the names of jurors were posted on 
the Tavern door. Town meetings were held in win- 
ter, and its comfortable fire made the Tavern the 
favorite place. Usually after the adjournment a 
good dinner with fine old ale was served at the ex- 
pense of the town by vote of the selectmen, to be 
itemized: "For this daies fireing and hous room." 

It is curious in those early days the Tavern was 
located by authority next to the church, while in these 
days in many places no liquor can be sold within so 
many feet of the church. The habit of drinking in 
New England was in those early days almost uni- 
versal, and yet the laws against the abuse of liquor 
were most stringent. The sale of liquor was under 
strict regulations; the Tavern was the only place 
where it could be legally obtained, and a tov^^i was 
obliged to pay a fine if an Inn or an Ordinary was not 
established for the sale of liquor. This prevented the 
establishment of saloons, and any abuses arising from 

[36] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

it were punished most severely. A person who be- 
came intoxicated was heavily fined, and was placed in 
the stocks on the Green, with a card upon which was 
visible the letter D. The fine was accepted with 
grace, but the punishment by the stocks and the let- 
tering on the breast was heavy to bear, because it 
exposed the individual to public ridicule, the form 
of drastic punishment most dreaded by early 
settlers. 

A notable feature of the Tavern was the sign or 
name by which it was known to the traveling public. 
The sign was usually hung upon a post in front of 
the Tavern, or else fastened to the building itself, or 
to a tree, as is the case in one of the most famous 
hostelries of the present day at Goshen, IST. Y. It is 
interesting to trace the origin of the New England 
Tavern sign, the history of which dates back to very 
ancient times, for centuries ago the custom of hang- 
ing out a sign of the Tavern was in vogue. In fact, 
the history of sign boards is traceable to ancient 
Egypt, according to Professor Frothingham, and 
old England copied the idea from ancient Rome. 
The Tavern sign became a most important part 
of the Tavern, as a license to open an Inn orig- 
inally included the sign upon it. This was the case 
in England, and France, and other countries, and was 
mandatory by law in colonial days. 

[37] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

In pre-Revolutionary times the name and sign of 
the Tavern had some reference to the mother comitry, 
examples of which are fomid in signs such as King 
George the Third, or the portrait of General Wolfe, 
King's Head, The Marquis of Granby, The Green 
Dragon, and the like. In Revolutionary days signs 
were adapted to the patriotic temper of the coun* 
try. Examples are seen in the use of the Ameri- 
can Eagle, or the portrait of Washington or La- 
fayette. In some cases the name of the Inn had ref- 
erence to some local attraction, or the sign bore a sug- 
gestive emblem, such as a bunch of grapes. 

During the Revolutionary war the sign post in 
front of a tavern opposite to the twentieth mile stone 
out of New York on the Boston Post Road was used 
to hang a British deserter. 

The Tavern keeper, or tapster as he was often 
called, was a unique character in early colonial his- 
tory. His status in the seventeenth century was some- 
what different from that in the eighteenth century, 
owing to the metamorphosis which the Tavern under- 
went through the introduction of the stage coach. 
There is scarcely an office, religious or political, that 
the tavern keeper during the eighteenth century has 
not filled. He was called from all ranks of life. 
Among the various offices New England tavern keep- 
ers have held, the duties of which he performed in 

[38] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

addition to those of Boniface, may be mentioned 
choir master, ferry man, tithing man, schoolmaster, 
justice of the peace, assessor of taxes, town constable, 
member of the legislature, selectman, captain of the 
militia, town surveyor, store-keeper, surveyor general 
of the army, collector of taxes, recruiting officer, 
apothecary, and church deacon, etc. 

At the close of the seventeenth century his social 
position was not what it was during the latter part 
of the eighteenth century. Social conditions changed 
largely with the appearance of the stage coach and 
the Tavern keeper during this period, until the ad- 
vent of railroads, held a much higher social position 
and was considered a man of great influence in the 
community. 

The Tavern keeper was the embodiment of all that 
makes life joyful. He was usually full of humor, 
possessed a fund of useful information of a local 
nature, told a good story, was prominent in the affairs 
of the town, was a walking encyclopedia on all public 
and private matters, a generous fellow beloved in the 
community at large. Indeed, he was the prominent 
man in the village. The social position of the Tavern 
keeper is illustrated by the fact that the granddaugh- 
ter of Governor Endicott was the landlady and wife 
of Mr. Treadwell, who kept the Tavern at Ipswich, 
Mass. Many are the instances that show what kind 

[39] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

of men the Tavern keepers in the early days of the 
Republic were. The following facts are taken from 
the book entitled "The History of Blandford," by the 
Rev. S. G. Wood. Justice Ashman kept a Tavern 
at Blandford, Mass. His son, Eli P. Ashman, helped 
him until he was nineteen years old. Then he studied 
law with Judge Sedgwick of Northampton and fi- 
nally became a lawyer in Blandford. From this coun- 
try boy developed a great lawyer. He was elected 
to the State legislature of both houses, was later 
a United States Senator, and was associated with 
Harrison Gray Otis. His career did not end here. 
Eli P. Ashman had two sons, John Hooker, who be- 
came in 1829 Royall Prof, of Law in the Dane Law 
School of Harvard College. The other son, George 
Ashman, studied law also and was a partner of Chief 
Justice Chapman of Masschusetts. He was four 
times elected a member of the legislature and at one 
time Speaker of the House. He was elected three 
times to Congress and was Chairman of the Republi- 
can Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln. 
The college catalogues of early days show that the 
tavern keeper's sons took precedence of the minister's 
sons, which again illustrates the prestige which the 
inn keeper had over those who wore the cloth during 
the days prior to the Revolutionary war. This slight 
digression illustrates what kind of a man the early 

[40] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Tavern keeper was and gives us abundant proof of 
his high standing and fine character. 

Thus the Tavern and the Tavern keeper grew up 
with the town and both had a marked influence on its 
welfare. To be sure, there were evils connected with 
the Tavern, but the good by far outweighed the 
evil. 

The old-time Tavern was the political wigwam, the 
news centre upon the arrival of the stage coach, the 
court house, the banquet hall, the scene of public 
flogging, the site of executions, the public drinking 
place open to all except "apprentices, negroes, and 
Indians." It was the centre of town activity, the 
alarm station for the minute men during the Revolu- 
tionary war. 

The elimination of the stage coach and the advent 
of the railroads again changed the character of the 
country Tavern. In stage coach days it was to the 
public what the railroad station is at the present time : 
it was the place where the passenger booked for his 
journey, just as the station now is the place where the 
traveler buys his ticket for the railroad train. This 
similarity has been emphasized by Mrs. Earle, who 
compares the distance from one tavern to another as 
the railroad marks the distance from one station to 
another in the time table. 

In the general plan of a New England Village 

[41] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Green the Lock-Up, the county jail and the State 
prison must be considered in relation to the abandon- 
ment of the old instruments of punishment. 

The Lock-Up, usually situated on the Green in 
some room set apart in the Town Hall or other build- 
ing, was under the local authority of the town con- 
stable or selectmen. It was used for detention of 
persons for any offense prior to their appearance 
before a local judge or magistrate. The Lock-Up 
is therefore a substitute for the constable's hand. It 
is used occasionally to detain tramps, or intoxicated 
persons over night. The Lock-Up is only for use in 
emergencj^ until the culj)rit can be safely transported 
to the county jail. 

The County Jail is likewise usually situated on the 
Green in the county seat. It was used for the deten- 
tion of the prisoner during court action, or for serving 
short term sentences in cases of misdemeanor, or for 
civil prisoners or witnesses. The early County Jail, 
even though located on the Green, has always had a 
just opprobrium attached to it because it served as a 
hot bed for the encouragement of crime. The prison- 
ers were huddled together and allowed to mingle in 
the daytime in the corridors, where the comparatively 
innocent young man learned about crime from the lips 
of the hardened criminal. The State prison in Con- 
necticut is located on an extensive Green, while most 

[42] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

of the county jails adjoin the court house, both of 
which are situated around the Green or near to it. 

During the development and growth of the State 
from very early colonial days to the present, the ques- 
tion of punishment of delinquents was an important 
one and it is interesting to trace the various methods 
of correction upward from colonial days. 

In the first few years there were no lock-ups or 
jails or State prisons to which criminals could be 
sent. In Clarke's history of Connecticut he says that 
"In 1667 it was ordered that every county should have 
a jail." In 1701 it was voted that "four sufficient 
prison houses should be continually maintained in this 
colony." 

The first jail in Connecticut was at Windham and 
the first common prison was in the copper mine at 
Granby, called Newgate, which was in use from 1726 
to 1827, at which time the prison was transferred to 
Wethersfield, where it is now the State prison. 

The Newgate prison in Granby was interesting in 
colonial history, because this first prison in Connecti- 
cut was not a separate building, but consisted of a 
cavernous copper mine. Into this subterranean dun- 
geon the prisoners were thrust, burglars, horse thieves, 
political offenders, counterfeiters. The many escapes, 
the incendiarism, the filth and unhygienic conditions 
made this prison a conmion pest house, and to prevent 

[43] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

escape the culprits while at work were held by chains 
fastened around the neck and to the ceihng, and by 
fetters on the ankles. Into the caves the prisoners 
were thrust at night, the "Caves reeking with filth, 
water trickling from the roof and oozing from the 
sides of the cavern." This prison consisted of two 
stories with two rooms, twelve by twenty-one feet, 
with one window, and a hole for ventilation over the 
door. Here, it is said, as many as fifty prisoners 
slept. In 1821 women were also sent to Newgate, 
and such a condition of affairs existed until the entire 
prison was transferred to Wethersfield in 1827. 

The ways of punishment for transgressions against 
the law in very early colonial days were manifold 
and unique. It is necessary to bear in mind the fact 
that in every community a jail was not always avail- 
able. It was necessary, therefore, to have some effi- 
cient means of punishment and restraint that could be 
enforced at once, and that was at the same time applic- 
able in ordinary as well as in extraordinary cases ; and 
it must be remembered that a sense of public ridicule 
and open derision was greatly dreaded by the Puritans. 
They were sensitive in the extreme, and resented any 
kind of punishment, no matter how well deserved, that 
involved publicity and shame before their fellow 
townsmen upon a public Green and in front of the 
Meeting House. 

[44] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

The first method of punishment that was used was 
known by the name of bilboes. In Mrs. Earle's book 
is mentioned the fact that John Winthrop brought 
bilboes over from England to this country in 1630. 
They were only used for about a decade, during which 
time the stocks were introduced, and the bilboes rele- 
vated to oblivion. The bilbo consisted of a long iron 
bar with two iron sliding shackles, into which the 
ankles of the prisoner were thrust and locked in the 
same way that handcuffs are locked upon the wrists. 
A chain was attached to the bar, and then fastened to 
an upright post. The culprit was obliged to lie flat 
on his back upon the ground, with his heels suspended 
in the air, and as he lay there the passing crowd of 
curious spectators laughed and mocked at him. 
Among the offenses for which the bilbo was used 
may be mentioned drunkenness, seditious words, pro- 
fanity, garrulousness, slander, petty larceny, selHng 
ammunition to the Indians etc. 

This instrument was replaced by the stocks in 1639. 
They consisted of two heavy boards one on top of the 
other, edgewise, the upper of which could be elevated ; 
and in these two boards were cut two circles, half of 
each upon the lower board, half upon the upper. The 
boards were brought into coaptation when the legs of 
the prisoner had been thrust between. He usually 
sat on a small bench and was unable to move, so that 

[45] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

he could not escape the ridicule, the jeers, the laughter 
and the mockery of the spectators as they passed by 
on the Sabbath day. The offenses which the stocks 
were employed to pimish were various. Among them 
may be mentioned drunkenness, extortion, slander, 
bigamy, petty larceny, reviling the magistrate, absence 
from the house of God, resisting the town constable, 
suspected incendiarism, vagrancy and idleness. 

The Pillory, often called the stretch-neck, was an 
instrument of punishment that was a terror to evil- 
doers. This machine was also transported from Eng- 
land. It consisted of two upright boards connected 
by a cross piece, which was divided by a hinge, and 
at the union of the two horizontal pieces a circle or 
hole was cut. The head was put into this hole, while 
the two pieces were bent, and then both were straight- 
ened to enclose it. If the crime was serious the ears 
of the prisoner were fastened to the horizontal board 
by nails on each side of the hole. Mrs. Earle men- 
tions the fact that one man was pilloried because he 
plowed on Thanksgiving Day; that another was pun- 
ished in this machine because he cast several votes 
for himself for a pubhc office; and still another for 
ordinary speculation, such as buying a cargo before 
the ship arrived, and then selling it out at retail; 
others for perjury, petty larceny, witchcraft, counter- 
feiting, and the passing of counterfeited bills. 

[46] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Various methods of enhancing the degradation of the 
pillory were indulged in by the populace, such as 
throwing rotten eggs. Sometimes a culprit also re- 
ceived thirty-nine lashes; occasionally one was 
branded with some letter to signify the crime, thus 
with the letter A for the adulterer, B for bigamist, 
C for cheat, D for drimkenness, F for the forger, 
P for the perjurer, etc. The Pillory fell finally into 
disuse and was abandoned in 1837. 

The Ducking Stool, an engine of punishment in 
old England, was occasionally used in this country. 
It consisted of a cross piece of wood attached by a 
pivot in its centre to a tall upright post, which was 
fixed in the ground on the bank of a pond or river; 
and attached to the end of the cross piece overhanging 
the water was a chair, into which the prisoner was 
tied. The ducking stool was used almost exclusively 
for scolding women and brawlers, who were so ducked 
as to submerge the hole body, including the head, and 
held under the water for half a minute. It was a form 
of punishment very much dreaded by women, and 
seems to have had a most beneficial result in curbing 
the tongue. 

There were other instruments of punishment of like 
nature for the "unquiet women" to which various 
names have been applied. It is curious how many 
methods of punishment were practiced by our colonial 

[^7] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

forbears to still a woman's tongue. The scold's bridle 
or the brank was not used in New England, but a 
cleft stick into which was inserted the woman's tongue 
was sometimes resorted to in controlling the unruly 
members among the early settlers on Long Island. 
History records that in Salem one woman was pun- 
ished for "reproaching the Elders" by having a cleft 
stick placed on her tongue for half an hour. These 
various forms of punishment were always executed on 
the Green and near the Meeting House. 



[48] 



AROUND THE NORFOLK GREEN 



Ill 

AROUND THE NORFOLK GREEN 

HAVING considered New England Village 
Greens in general, let us now consider the Nor- 
folk Green in particular. 

To the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge this town is in- 
debted in the year 1870 for the preservation of this 
beautiful Norfolk Green from desecration by cutting 
the railroad through its centre, and if this ambassador 
of Christ had done no other work during his long and 
faithful ministry in this town, he would have accom- 
plished a work for the community that would have 
entitled him to the grateful thanks of the past, the 
present, and the future generations. 

No one can conceive of the importance and value of 
our Green until he has become imbued with the knowl- 
edge of its usefulness and beauty. Few people ever 
stop to contemplate the beauties of the Norfolk 
Green. The writer in his pilgrimages throughout 
New England has observed the Greens, especially in 
reference to their condition of preservation, and he has 

[51] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

observed that the care of the Village Green is an index 
of the prosperity and thrift of the town: when a com- 
munity begins to deteriorate the Green is the first 
thing to be neglected. 

The Norfolk Green is located in a most convenient 
and desirable place. The beautiful trees planted by 
the early settlers afford delightful shade, the winding 
foot paths possess a peculiar charm. Perhaps the 
best way to describe it is in imagination to stroll about 
it, observing the surrounding buildings in the order 
of location, and then to consider the beauty of the 
Green itself. 

The first building that attracts the eye and the most 
important structm-e on the Green is the Meeting 
House, the history of which is most interesting from 
every point of view. The first Meeting House on the 
Green was located very near the situation of the pres- 
ent one. The original House was "raised and cov- 
ered" in 1759 and was fifty by forty feet in dimen- 
sions, of sufficient height to accommodate a gallery, 
but without a steeple. In 1761, the year of the ordi- 
nation of the first permanent pastor. Rev. Ammi 
Ruhamah Robbins, this primitive Meeting House 
"was underpinned and the lower floor laid." In 1767 
the gallery floor was laid and in 1769 the lower part 
of the building was finished and a pulpit installed, 
and in 1770 it was dignified and seated. In 1771 

[52] 




THE NORFOLK MEETING HOUSE SITUATED OX THE GREEN 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

the galleries were finished, a cushion for the pulpit 
desk was made, and the entire building painted a peach 
blossom color. In this building the people worshipped 
in winter and summer for a little over half a century. 
They were summoned on the Sabbath by the blowing 
of a horn and certain persons were appointed to see 
that every one attended divine worship. Near this 
peach colored Meeting House, hidden in the trees, 
was erected the Sabbath Day House, where fires 
could be made for the members of the church and 
their friends to warm themselves in the interval be- 
tween the morning and afternoon services, and also to 
fill the tin foot stoves with live coals, which they 
carried into the Meeting House to warm their feet. 
In 1813 this first Meeting House was removed, and 
in 1814 the second Meeting House was finished, 60 
by 45 feet in dimensions, and with a steeple and bell. 
This was built near the site of the original and was 
erected under the supervision of Michael F. Mills, 
who was appointed as agent by the society to build 
the best house he could for $6,000. It is still in ex- 
istence ; but after the death of Rev. Joseph Eldridge 
the interior was beautifully decorated and painted, 
a new platform and pulpit erected, electric lights in- 
stalled, a new organ donated, Munich stained glass 
windows placed behind the pulpit, all through the 
great generosity of the Eldridge and Battell famihes. 

[53] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

The Meeting House as it now stands is a model of 
colonial church architecture. Its symmetry, its pro- 
portions, its graceful steeple, its artistic Sir Clms- 
topher Wren spire, its site on the knoll overlooking 
the Green, its beautiful interior decoration, its mag- 
nificent organ, make it one of the most attractive and 
beautiful in New England. One feature is most un- 
usual to find in a Congregational church, a cross at 
the apex of the spire. It is "the only Puritan Meet- 
ing House whose spire from the first was surmounted 
by a cross and the same cross still points skyward." 
This cross was evidently placed on the steeple in 1^4, /^/^ 
according to dates found in Rev. Thomas Robbins's 
diary. 

Before dismissing this beautiful New England 
Meeting House, it may not be inappropriate to men- 
tion two events that occurred at the time of its com- 
pletion. These events are mentioned in Crissey's 
valuable book on the history of Norfolk. The train- 
ing band met one day on the Green in front of the 
church, and while drilling with the militia, heard the 
sound of a violin, but were unable to tell whence the 
music came. Some one, looking up, discovered Bar- 
zillai Treat on the apex of the steeple, sitting astride 
the new vane, playing his violin, to the astonishment 
and amazement of all below. On another occasion 
three or four httle girls climbed into the belfry, and 

[54] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

were observed outside the railing chasing one another 
in a game of "catcher." Men on the Green, reahzing 
the danger, hastily climbed to the belfry tower and 
seized each child as she came around the belfry tower. 

Still another story connected with the first Meeting 
House is interesting. On Thanksgiving Day, 1787, 
the people had assembled for divine worship and the 
minister had begun his Thanksgiving sermon when a 
man entered the church and walked down the middle 
aisle and facing the minister, informed him and the 
congregation that five wolves were on Haystack 
Mountain, already partly surrounded by men, and 
that assistance was immediately needed to hunt them 
down before they made their escape. A number of 
men arose from their seats, marched down the aisle, 
collected on the Green in front of the church and 
securing their guns, started for the scene of action. A 
line of hunters was formed around Haystack, who 
gradually ascended in order to hem the wolves in 
near the mountain top. The beasts now made a 
stampede and were one by one killed, and all were 
brought to the Village Green and exhibited to the 
people who had collected after the services to witness 
the result of the hunt. 

The next building to the church is the beautiful 
colonial residence of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel, 
called the White House, which was originally built 

[55] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

by Mr. Joseph Battell in 1799 for the reception of 
his bride, the daughter of Rev. Ammi Ruhamah 
Robbins. In this house was bom on April 9, 1819, 
Robbins Battell, who died in this same house on the 
Green on January 26, 1895. He was most intimately 
associated with the growth and development and pres- 
ervation of this beautiful Village Green and he is 
recognized as the father of modern Norfolk. In 
this house is a picture gallery containing a rich col- 
lection of paintings, chiefly by American artists, 
among them "The Last Moments of John Brown," by 
Thomas Hovendon ; some paintings by Church, Bier- 
stadt and many other artists of great reputation. 
While this gallery is not a public one, visitors are priv- 
ileged to see these paintings by special permission. 
In addition to the picture gallery this house contains 
a magnificent organ. 

In the belfry of the Meeting House adjoining the 
White House is a bell presented by Mr. Robbins Bat- 
tell, "which rings blessed requiems to his memory in 
music of his composition." 

The Tavern on the Green was built by Giles Petti- 
bone, Jr., in 1794. He died in 1811. His son Jona- 
than Humphrey Pettibone, who died in 1832, suc- 
ceeded his father as Tavern keeper. This Tavern a 
little later was kept by John A. Shepard, the son of 
Major James Shepard, who kept a Tavern in 1820 

[56] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

in the house built by Captain Ariel Lawrence op- 
posite the residence of Dr. Wm. W. Welch, and later 
in the Canfield house just below the present Catholic 
church. John A. Shepard was born in 1802 and died 
in 1883. This Tavern was known as Shepard's Tav- 
ern and during the stage coach era was a place of 
great activity. Here the stages stopped to change 
horses en route between Hartford and Albany and 
between Winsted and Canaan. 

This Tavern was in late years rebuilt for a private 
residence by Mr. Frederick M. Shepard, the son of 
Capt. John A. Shepard, and was occupied by him 
and his family as a summer residence. It is now 
occupied by his daughter, Miss Edith Shepard, who, 
in 1914, constructed a most beautiful Italian garden 
on the land adjoining the house; and this garden 
forms a most attractive feature in connection with 
the Green. An interesting fact connected with the 
old Tavern is that seven generations of the Shepard 
family have lived in it. The baby representing the 
seventh generation was born in old England and was 
brought over to New England to complete the 
scripture number. 

One of the most attractive buildings upon the 
Green is the Library. At the tenth anniversary of 
the opening of this Library, Henry H. Eddy, the 
librarian, found that the first mention of a town 

[57] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

library was in 1761, the year of the inauguration of 
the Rev. Anuni Ruhumah Robbins as first permanent 
pastor of the church in Norfolk. A library company 
was then formed, and about 150 volumes were col- 
lected; and this hbrary remained in activity about 
thirty-five years, when it was dissolved, the books to 
be distributed among the original donors. In 1824 
a second library was formed and incorporated with 
142 volimies, besides periodicals. Like its predecessor 
it was short lived and dissolved in 1866. The books 
passed into the hands of Mrs. Charlotte Mills, and 
Miss Louise Stevens, who subsequently founded a 
third hbrary, which was in the hands of a committee. 
This new Library was placed on a business basis and 
a yearly fee of one dollar was charged for member- 
ship. It continued for a year and its books formed 
the nucleus of a fourth Library. In 1881 Miss Isa- 
bella Eldridge opened a reading room in the Scoville 
house on the Green, and the books of the third Library 
were placed there, and in addition 28 newspapers and 
periodicals. 

In 1889 the present Library, the gift of Miss Isa- 
bella Eldridge, in sacred memory of her father and 
mother, was opened to the public. In 1899 it was 
incorporated, and subsequently the building was en- 
larged. It contains forty thousand volumes and about 
seventy newspapers and periodicals. Its permanent 

[58] 




ON 



a. 
> 

H 
Q 
< 

Or 
c/3 

w 

I! 
H 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

usefulness is illustrated by the fact that in 1915 there 
were over 30,000 books in circulation and 55,000 
visitors in the building. Its administration is perfect 
in all its many details. Dr. John Shaw Billings, the 
late librarian of the pubHc library in New York City, 
who was the greatest authority on library manage- 
ment, spoke in the highest terms of its efficiency and 
management. Mr. Frederick M. Shepard, whose 
great generosity to Norfolk in many ways is well 
known, contributed land to enlarge and to make it 
beautiful. The floral decorations are the gift of Miss 
Eldridge, and to her the town people are indebted for 
the attractive appearance of the flowers, the hedges, 
the lawn, and the shrubbery surrounding this artistic 
building, which adds so much to the appearance of the 
callage. This library is one of the many noble and 
generous gifts of this kind-hearted and philanthropic 
woman, who has done so much for her native town 
and has so largely contributed to the scenic beauty 
of the Green. 

The Parsonage was built originally by Mr. E. H. 
Dennison as a residence, and the house in which Mr. 
George W. Scoville lives next to it was formerly 
Mr. Dennison's store. The Dennison house was pur- 
chased by Mr. Alfred L. Dennis and was enlarged 
and improved in 1852. This house became his sum- 
mer residence and he was the first simimer resident 

[59] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

of Norfolk. It was once occupied by Mr. Robbins 
Battell at the time of his marriage, and is the house 
in which Mrs. Carl Stoeckel was born. After the 
death of Mr. Joseph Battell, Mr. Robbins Battell 
moved into the White House. During the time of 
Mr. Dennis's occupancy his daughter, Mary Eliza 
Dennis, also Warren E. Dennis, were born. Later 
the house was presented by Mr. A. L. Dennis to his 
sister, Mrs. Samuel Shepard, and afterward sold by 
her to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel, who for many 
years owned it. Recently it was sold to the Rev. Wm. 
F. Stearns, who has concreted the outside, and at 
present resides in it. 

The Town Hall, originally the academy, was built 
in 1840 and from that time on was used as the place 
for the transactions of town business, including vot- 
ing. In 1846 a committee was appointed to confer 
with the proprietors of the academy with a view to the 
use of this building for town meetings. The lower 
floor is used for town meetings ; the upper floor is the 
property of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel; it was not 
unusual in early days to have one building owned by 
two or more parties. In addition to the school room 
above and the town hall below, there was constructed 
in the basement a lock-up, which has been built on the 
first floor by partitioning off a room. 

The next house on the Village Green is that owned 

[60] 




o <; 
. u 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

by Mr. Ralph I. Crissey. He still resides in this 
attractive house, with beautiful elm trees and green 
lawn in front. It is the home of one of Norfolk's most 
respected and beloved citizens, whose brother was the 
author of a most complete and valuable history of 
the town of Norfolk. 

One of the most beautiful of the colonial residences 
in front of the Green is the one which is now occu- 
pied by the Misses Eldridge and which is their an- 
cestral home, having been the residence of the Rev. 
Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Eldridge. This house has been 
enlarged and beautifully decorated by the well-known 
New York architect, Mr. J. Cleveland Cady, and is 
one of the most artistic homes in New England. The 
arrangement of the flowers, and the beautiful garden 
and green houses around the house conspire to make 
the place one of the most attractive in Connecticut. 
The valuable collection of flowers in the early Spring 
in front of this house affords an opportunity of see- 
ing and admiring the choicest and most beautiful 
collection of foreign plants in any village in New 
England. 

The stone chapel on the Green which adjoins the 
Meeting House is the gift of Mrs. LTrania Battell 
Humphrey, supplemented by the gifts of her son-in- 
law, Professor Shepard, and Mr. Robbins and Miss 
Anna Battell. This beautiful building is made of 

[61] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

granite quarried from Bald Mountain, and stands on 
the site of the old centre school house and Conference 
Room, which was erected in 1819. There is this in- 
scription on the chapel: 

"To the Triune God in memory of 
Joseph Battell and Sarah Battell." 

This building was erected in 1887 and was designed 
by Mr. J. Cleveland Cady of New York. Mrs. 
Humphrey died before it was completed and it was 
given over to the First Ecclesiastical Society of the 
Town of Norfolk. The chapel was first used in 1888 
for the weekly paryer meeting and Sunday school, 
and has been in use since that time and is still used for 
rehgious services. The memorial windows were de- 
signed by Mr. Louis C. Tiffany. 

Having strolled in imagination around the Green 
and observed the colonial residences and public build- 
ings, a walk on the Green itself will be found full 
of interest. The first thing to attract the eye are the 
beautiful trees. The elms on the Norfolk Green were 
set out in 1788, as were some button woods and other 
indigenous trees. An inscription on one of the elms 
still standing reads : 

"Voices of the Elms 
"Csesar saw fifty: we an hundred years. 
Still green, an hundred more we'll stand, seers, 

[62] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

And watch the generations as they go, 
Beneath our branches in their ceaseless flow." 

These magnificent elms are silent and impressive 
witnesses of scenes and events that have been enacted 
for over a century on the Norfolk Green. The beauti- 
ful inscription was furnished by the Rev. John F. 
Gleason about 1880, who at that time was the minister 
of this time-honored Meeting House. 

The primeval forest which once covered the Green 
was probably removed about 1775. Dr. Thomas 
Robbins in his century sermon says: "The shade trees 
on this Green were set out in the Spring of 1788." 
The number of trees set out at that time is said to be 
fifty-seven, and of this original number only seven 
of the elms are still standing. Mr. Rice, the beloved 
teacher who came to Norfolk in 1846 and retired in 
1858, planted trees on the green, selecting specimens 
of every kind indigenous to Norfolk. Mr. H. W. 
Carter introduced systematic tree planting on the 
Green, and to him is due the credit of having stimu- 
lated the interest of the town in the subject. Arbor 
Day always is celebrated on the Norfolk Green, the 
Misses Eldridge present trees to the children of the 
village to plant. This is one of the many generous 
acts on the part of these sisters in contribution to the 
beauty of this unique village and Green. 

[63] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

The Constitutional Oak presented to the town by 
Delegate William O'Connor was planted on the 
Green May 2, 1902. The government of the United 
States, thi'ough Senator Joseph R. Hawley, sent a 
Constitution Oak to each town through its delegate. 
The occasion of the presentation of the oak was in 
commemoration of the constitutional convention held 
in 1902 in Connecticut. The oak died and the voters 
of Connecticut rejected the constitution adopted by 
the convention. 

Another object of great interest is the Soldiers' 
Monument. This was erected a few years after the 
close of the Civil War, on the centre of the green, in 
front of the Meeting House, in memory of those who 
went from Norfolk to the war. The town voted 
$750 toward the expense of the monument, the bal- 
ance was raised by private subscription to the amount 
of $2,200. Wm. A. Burdick designed it and it was 
built from the celebrated granite of Westerly, Rhode 
Island. This monument consists of two bases, a die, 
a plinth and a granite shaft. The measurements 
taken from Crissey's book are : the lower base, six feet 
square; the second base, four and a half feet square, 
and the die, from which rises the shaft, three feet nine 
inches square and three and a half feet high; so that 
the entire height is a little more than 24 feet. On the 
west face is inscribed: "To the memory of the soldiers 

[64] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

from this town who gave theu* hves to their country 
in the war of the Rebellion." The names of the 
thirty-five men are carved upon it. The monument is 
simple, effective, grand: in its silent massiveness it 
shall tell the story to posterity of the steadfastness, 
even unto death, of those whose glorious deeds it com- 
memorates, and whose memory it preserves." 

At the apex of the triangle of the Green and at its 
extreme southern end, is the beautiful memorial foun- 
tain erected in 1889 by Miss Mary Eldridge in mem- 
ory of Mr. Joseph Battell. This fountain is made 
of carved granite from ^lilford, Mass., with lamps 
of bronze, and a bronze fish out of the mouth of which 
flows a stream of water into a stone reservoir. Out of 
this horses can drink, and in a smaller bowl below dogs 
can quench their thirst. The fountain stands on a 
paved platform made of pebbles embedded in cement. 
There is an upright stone column in the centre upon 
which is this inscription : 

"In Memory of Joseph Battell, born in Norfolk, 
1806, died in New York, 1874." Upon the other 
side of the column is engraved in small type the fol- 
lowing: "Erected by his niece, Mary Eldridge." 
Above the bowl is the date : 

"Erected MDCCCLXXXIX" 

Tliis memorial fountain, much admired as a work 

[65] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

of art, was made from designs by Stanford WTiite 
of New York. The column and the ball are of Greek 
design, copied after an old Spanish fountain. 

Few who have not seen the Norfolk Green in the 
four seasons can realize the great contrast which it 
presents at different times. The beautiful green 
grass and the lovely flowers of summer are replaced 
by a sheet of snow in winter : upon one occasion, many 
years ago, it is reported, the snow lay to the depth 
of six feet on the level, and from eighteen to twenty 
in the drifts. Upon this Norfolk Green a group of 
four young people once indulged in an innocent dance 
on a week day, when the deacon, now long gone to his 
rest, warned the young people that if a repetition 
occurred, they would be read out of church. It is 
hard to believe that the Calvinistic tendency was ever 
so strong as to provoke such a threat made in good 
faith. 

The Norfolk Green was the place selected as the 
starting point for the erection of milestones indi- 
cating the distance along the main highway from the 
village centre. To Mr. Robbins Battell is due the 
credit of placing mile stones out from the Village 
Green for one and two measured miles along everj'- 
public highway radiating from it. These stones so set 
up still stand to indicate to the traveller liis distance 
from the Norfolk Green. 

[66] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

The placing of milestones along highways dates 
back as far as 1774, and to Benjamin Franklin while 
postmaster general is due in great part the credit of 
establishing this method of measuring the road distance 
from town to town. Benjamin FrankHn measured out 
the miles by some instrument on the cart and wagon 
wheel, and Jenkins mentions in his book on the Boston 
Post Road the fact that these milestones, some of 
which are still in evidence, marked the location of 
taverns along the post roads. There is one at Strat- 
ford, another at Roxbury, which were set up in the 
eighteenth century. 

These milestones were of great importance in those 
early days, in proof of which may be cited the act of 
1774, whereby the penalty of defacing one of them 
was a fine of three pounds sterling ; or if the offender 
were a slave, he was committed to jail and received 
thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, "unless the said 
forfeiture of three pounds were paid within sixty days 
after such conviction." 



[67] 



EVENTS THAT OCCURRED ON THE 
NORFOLK GREEN 



IV 

EVENTS THAT OCCURRED ON THE 
NORFOLK GREEN 

IT IS interesting to note that the first American 
flag was made by Betsy Ross of Philadelphia 
in May, 1776, "with its thirteen stripes and a bine 
field dotted with thirteen stars." It is said that Gen- 
eral Washington on Christmas Eve, 1776, carried the 
flag across the Delaware River through the ice and 
over the snow in his attack upon the Hessians at the 
battle of Trenton. The first pubhc mention of the 
American flag by the British was at the surrender of 
General Burgoyne, October 17, 1777, when one of 
his officers said, "The stars of the new flag represent 
the constellation of States." In association with this 
episode about the flag with General Burgoyne has 
been handed down the story that a part of Burgoyne's 
army encamped on the Norfolk Green during their 
retreat from Ticonderoga to Boston while he and a 
part of his army were prisoners of war. 

From the Norfolk Village Green upon which the 

[71] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

militia and training band drilled twenty-four Norfolk 
men responded at a moment's notice and thus con- 
tributed to the army of the minute men to the call 
of the "Lexington alarm" in 1775, and during the 
Revolutionary war more than one hundred and fifty 
Norfolk men gave their services, and many their hves, 
to the cause of liberty. This same Village Green wit- 
nessed the departure of one hundred and fifty more 
men who enlisted to fight in the Civil War in 1861. 
The sacred precinct of this Village Green has borne 
a great testimony to the valor and courage and 
patriotism of Norfolk men, and if it had no other 
association connected with it than this, it is entitled 
to the protection, care and love of the community. It 
is safe to state that the Norfolk Green has a history 
that insures it a place as great in the hearts of the 
American people as any Green in New England. 
Many of the following facts have been taken from 
the diary of Mrs. John A. Shepard, who kept a diary 
for over fifty years. This privilege has been granted 
by Miss Edith Shepard. . 

On February 18, 1851, the village boys played a 
game of batton on the Green; and later, the writer 
remembers distinctly seeing the Enghsh game of 
wicket played on its southern extremity near where 
the memorial fountain now stands. 

On May 23, 1853, men planted trees around the 

[72] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Green to supplant some which had died through the 
inclemency of the weather. 

On January 12, 1854, the Indians gave an exhibi- 
tion around and on the Green and in May of the same 
year a public auction or vendue took place there. In 
November of the same year, by a singular freak of 
nature, many of the trees were seen in blossom, and 
a repetition of this phenomenon occurred in January, 
1858. 

On March 13, 1856, the stage was delayed by the 
wind which completely upset it as it was approaching 
the Green. This happened while the stage was 
"rounding the cape" near the old Green situated op- 
posite the Bigelow tavern now occupied as a sum- 
mer residence by Mr. Louis Stearns of New York. 

On January 30, 1857, the thermometer on the 
Green stood 30° F. below zero and no stage with the 
mail came down the hill to change horses for a period 
of one week. 

On August 17, 1858, there was a grand celebration 
on the Village Green upon the occasion of the com- 
pletion of the laying of the Atlantic cable between 
England and America, and the transmission of a mes- 
sage from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan. 
The writer remembers the event very distinctly: the 
occasion of the celebration was impressed upon him 
by his father as a wonderful event he must never for- 

[73] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

get, and the scene is as vivid upon him as if it were 
yesterday. This celebration consisted of a display of 
fireworks, the ringing of the church bells, the firing 
of guns, and a procession with illuminated transpa- 
rencies with many mottoes appropriate to the occasion. 
On one transparency was emblazoned the words, 
"Norfolk and London united." On the day 
following this celebration the Winsted band came 
up to Norfolk and played on the Green and the 
houses all around the Green were illuminated by 
candles standing in every window. A torch light pro- 
cession marched around the Green and speeches were 
made appropriate to the occasion. On Aug. 28, 1858, 
there was a ball match played on the Green — a part 
of this great celebration which covered several days. 
On September 10 of this same year another ball game 
was played between the Colebrook and Norfolk boys 
after which a supper was provided at the Shepard 
Tavern for the thirty-two players. 

On April 11, 1859, the market fair was held on the 
Norfolk Green — the forerunner of the present Agri- 
cultural fair now held on the private grounds of the 
Association. 

On September 5, 1859, there were four stages to 
Winsted from Norfolk and the changing of the 
horses took place on the Green in front of the tavern. 

On April 8, 1870, the Norfolk Green was covered 

[74] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

with ice and snow and the children were out shding 
on their sleds ; and on September 14 of the same year 
the Sabbath School held its picnic on the Green. 

On November 1, 1870, the Rev. Joseph Eldridge 
preached his farewell sermon in the church facing the 
Green and upon this occasion two carloads of people 
came from Winsted to pay homage to this saintly 
man, to listen to his sermon, and to participate in the 
solemn exercises. 

On September 12, 1871, a great celebration was 
held on the Green on the occasion of the completion 
of the railroad through Norfolk. A cavalcade 
marched to the Green headed by the Lakeville cornet 
band amid firing of cannons, ringing of church bell, 
the prolonged whistle of the locomotive and the shout- 
ing of the people. Prayer was offered by the Rev. 
Dr. Eldridge and an address was made by Mr. John 
K. Shepard, after which a bountiful collation was 
served. The press was represented by Mr. Charles 
Hopkins Clark of the Hartford Courant and many 
other Connecticut men of celebrity made addresses 
from the platform which was erected on the Green 
for this purpose. The fact that the Green was not 
sacrificed to the railroad, which through the influence 
of Rev. Dr. Eldridge and Mr. Robbins Battell was 
compelled to go around the park instead of across it, 
added much to the sincerity of the festivities which 

[75] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

the people of Norfolk were assembled to celebrate. 
On September 16, 1874, the Sabbath School Conven- 
tion of Teachers was held on the Green. 

On May 30, 1877, the people assembled on the 
Green to hear an address by the Rev. Mr. Gleason, 
and upon its completion one hundred children sang, 
and then marched from the Green with flags and bou- 
quets to visit the cemetery and to decorate the graves 
of the soldiers who had fallen in defense of their coun- 
try during the Civil War. In this same year seats 
were placed on the Green by Mr. Ford. 

In December, 1878, the old bell in the belfry of 
the church on the Green was taken down and a new 
bell weighing two thousand pounds was placed in the 
belfry; and two days later new chimes presented by 
Mr. Robbins Battell were attached to this bell. The 
words to the music of the chimes are, during the day : 

"Lord through the day 
Be Thou our guide 
So by Thy power 
No foot shall shde." 

During the night : 

"Lord through the night 
Protect us still 
By Thy great might 
From every ill." 
[76] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

On August 22, 1880, a church service was held on 
the Green and the Rev. Mr. Gregory of Hartford, 
Conn., preached. Services of a hke nature have been 
conducted by the Rev. Wm. F. Stearns at in- 
tervals during the past few years on the Green in 
front of the church during the summer evenings. 

On April 28, 1881, John A. Shepard, who kept the 
tavern on the Green, set out ten beautiful maples in 
front of the tavern and along the path in front of 
the library where they now afford abundant shade to 
pedestrians as they walk on the north side of the 
Green. The trees have grown to a large size and re- 
flect the generous forethought of the man who planted 
them for others to enjoy just one year previous to his 
death. On June 21, 1881, the Sabbath School Con- 
vention was held on the Green upon which occasion a 
bountiful collation was served, and in August of the 
same year a brass band from Falls Village gave a 
concert for the enjoyment and pleasure of the people 
of the town. 

In July, 1882, a festival was held on the Green and 
the grounds were all illuminated by Chinese lanterns. 
The following month there was a series of six con- 
certs held on the Green through the benefaction of 
Mr. Robbins Battell. The band was brought from 
New York and it played during the afternoons and 
evenings. During this same month a concert was 

[77] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

also given by the Winsted band, and a festival was 
given by the ladies of the village at which quite a suni 
of money was raised for benevolent purposes. An- 
other series of concerts was given on the Green in 
July, 1888, by Mr. Battell. To one of the concerts a 
special train of five cars brought about two thousand 
visitors from New Hartford and Winsted and to an- 
other in this series a special train of seven cars 
brought people from Collinsville, New Hartford and 
Winsted — a fact mentioned to illustrate the interest 
of the neighboring people in good music. 

In 1907 there was a fire drill on the Green under 
the auspices of Fire Chief Croker and Dr. H. M. 
Archer of the Fire Department of New York City. 
To the assembled audience an exhibition was given 
to demonstrate the usefulness and high pressure of 
the great water system by throwing a stream of water 
over the church steeple. The water is brought to the 
Green and to the town through the generosity of Mr. 
Frederick M. Shepard who incorporated in 1893 a 
company to carry the water from Lake Wangum on 
Canaan Mt., a distance of four miles, by a twelve and 
ten-inch main through the granite ledge of rocks, — 
a magnificent work, completed in 1896, and an en- 
during monument to his native town. 

In addition to the hose drill there was an exhibition 
of life saving where men were carried from the roof 

[78] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

of the Meeting House to the ground. This exhibition 
on the Green was an inspiration to the men of the 
Norfolk Fire Department, and it was an unusual 
privilege to receive instructions from men whose 
reputation as fire fighters is world wide. It led to the 
formation of a chemical fire company as part of the 
fire department. The company has, through sub- 
scriptions raised by Mrs. Frederic S. Dennis, received 
a chemical engine and an automobile, and with its 
other equipments is fully prepared. 

On July 4, 1916, the Norfolk Green was the meet- 
ing place of the town people in general to inaugurate 
the first community day. The occasion was an in- 
spiration of the Rev. Mr. Barstow and to him is 
due the credit of bringing together the people of all 
denominations to celebrate in conmion the anniversary 
of our National Independence. All the people thus 
assembled on the Green were transported in auto- 
mobiles kindly furnished in great numbers and free 
of charge. The people were then carried to the golf 
links where a grand celebration took place in which 
all persons of whatever creed and nationality, young 
and old, came together. On account of this manner 
of celebrating, the Fourth of July was called "get to- 
gether day." All kinds of athletic games suited to re- 
spective ages were enjoyed; notably a baseball match 
between local teams was arranged in which game Mr. 

[79] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

George B. Case, a former captain of the Yale L^niver- 
sity nine, and one of the most famous baseball players 
in the country, and now one of the most distinguished 
lawyers of the United States, acted as umpire. The 
captain of one of the local teams was young George 
Case, who bids fair to echpse his father in athletic 
sports. There were other athletic games, drills by the 
boy scouts, literary exercises and a beautiful lunch 
provided by the ladies of the village for one thousand 
people. Music was kindly provided by Miss Mary 
Eldridge and the occasion was in every way enjoyed 
by all. During the summer of 1916 the Village Green 
was used as the meeting place for the Norfolk Guards 
where, like the militia of colonial days, the young men 
were drilled in mihtary tactics; which demonstrates 
that Norfolk is not behind other towns in the spirit 
of preparedness of the present day. 



[80] 



INCIDENTS AND ACTIVITIES 

ASSOCIATED WITH THE 

NORFOLK GREEN 



INCIDENTS AND ACTIVITIES 

ASSOCIATED WITH THE 

NORFOLK GREEN 

HAVING now reviewed in a chronological order 
some of the events which occurred on the Green 
it is pertinent to refer to some miscellaneous subjects 
connected with the history of the Green which can 
not be classified with the events already mentioned. 
The first Post Office in Norfolk was established in 
1804, and Michael F. Mills was the first postmaster. 
The office was in the Ariel Lawrence Tavern near 
the site of the memorial foimtain dedicated to Dr. 
William W. Welch; the small drawer of a table was 
all that was necessary in those days. Joseph Jones 
was appointed postmaster about 1815, and the Post 
Office then was upon the Green in the house next to 
the present parsonage. The Post Office was also kept 
in the Shepard Tavern. The office was moved down 
the hill and up again several times, and about 1852 
was in the Battell store. In 1861 it was moved again 

[83] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

onto the Green to the old store, where it remained for 
about eight years. It is now in the Arcanum build- 
ing near the Savings Bank. 

The nearest Post Office for Norfolk until 1793 was 
in Hartford, Conn., and the first post rider came 
through Norfolk in 1789 en route for Lenox from 
New Haven. This post rider, Jehiel Saxton by 
name, travelled through the village at stated inter- 
vals. Incidentally it might be mentioned that a post 
rider went from Litchfield to New York in 1790. In 
1794 Ebenezer Burr of Norfolk became a post rider 
between Litchfield and Salisbury, via Goshen, Nor- 
folk and Canaan. In connection with the subject of 
mail and post riders might be mentioned the facts 
that in the year 1673 the first mail on the continent 
of America was dispatched from New York to Bos- 
ton; that about 1772 the first stage coach line was 
established between these two cities, one coach every 
two weeks; that in 1782 the service was daily; that 
about 1848 the railroads began to run through trains 
between Boston and New York. From this date the 
doom of the post rider and the stage coach was sealed 
and upon the introduction of the railroads the tavern 
or inn became the hotel. 

The writer recalls most vividly before the days of 
the railroad, the arrival on the Green of the stage 
coach from Winsted to Canaan, and vice versa. The 

[84] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

old Huggins stage could be heard rumbling down the 
hill over the rough country road, the brake grinding 
until released at the foot of the hill. It was the cus- 
tom to stand in front of the tavern and look up the 
hill toward Winsted or at the brow of the hill and 
look down toward Canaan to watch for the top of the 
stage as it came into view. At midnight when the 
stage was due from Winsted, the rattle of the wheels 
could be heard as one sat in the tap room of the old 
tavern long before its arrival. It was a forbidding 
sight to see the start for Winsted at five o'clock on a 
winter's morning to connect with the early train for 
New York. The writer remembers well as a small 
boy the satisfaction his father took in giving financial 
support to the stage line so that the store keeper leav- 
ing Norfolk at dawn for New York, could return just 
before midnight, and it could be said that a business 
man of Norfolk could make a business trip to New 
York and back in one day. The amount of baggage 
allowed the traveller by stage coach in early colonial 
days was from fourteen to twenty pounds, and the 
small trunks of calf skin used then, are now a rare 
curiosity of modern times. The amount of baggage 
and the size of the trunk at the present time is in strik- 
ing contrast to the allowance in colonial days. Im- 
agine the difference between the Saratoga or ward- 
robe trunk of the present and the little calf skin 

[85] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

covered box fourteen pounds in weight, which could 
be carried in one hand. 

Among many of the happenings on the Norfolk 
Green which the writer remembers, and which in- 
spired in him a fondness for the horse, was the driving 
exhibition of Mr. Robbins Battell's horses. To Mr. 
Battell is due the credit of educating the community 
up to a high standard in the breeding of horses. There 
was no place in New England where a better type of 
horse could be found than was bred in Norfolk. Mr. 
Battell imported horses from abroad and also bred 
the Russian Orloff and the Arabian horse. The in- 
spiration of Mr. Battell's example is visible in the 
exhibition of useful and valuable horses now seen in 
Norfolk at the Agricultural Show where, in 1915, 
beautiful types of horses, even prize winners in the 
New York and London horse shows were exhibited. 
The writer remembers well the exercising of Mr. Bat- 
tell's horses in front of the Green and notably among 
these horses were Rupert, Pleasant Gale, Lemon Fair 
and later the Russian Orloffs. In previous years he 
owned Falcon and Black Hawk. 

Coincident with these horse exhibitions was the 
drilling of the Norfolk Zouaves in front of the Green 
under Captain Wilham H. Welch, who now is the 
most distinguished medical man of the present cen- 
tury. 

[86] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Great credit is due to Miss Mary Eldridge for the 
wonderful display of fireworks on the Green on the 
Fourth of July in front of the Meeting House. Such 
elaborate exhibitions have become a tradition of Nor- 
folk, and people gather from all parts of the town 
to witness them. Miss Eldridge's great generosity 
enabled the people for years to see fireworks that were 
superb and wonderful, which equalled if they did 
not surpass those of any town in New England. 

Music has been intimately associated with the Nor- 
folk Green. In 1882 Mr. Robbins Battell introduced 
the custom of giving band concerts on the Green, and 
from this without doubt originated the idea of the 
wonderful concerts given annually by Mr. and Mrs. 
Carl Stoeckel. These concerts afford the people of 
Norfolk an opportunity of hearing the best music 
in the country because the greatest musicians are 
secured; and they have led up through various 
organizations to the formation of the Litchfield 
County Choral Union in 1899 to honor the memory of 
]Mr. Robbins Battell. These wonderful concerts un- 
der the leadership of Mr. Richmond P. Paine, who 
has done so much to give them a world-wide reputa- 
tion, have provided in a little over a decade, without 
any expense to the public, classical music to over 70,- 
000 residents of this County. 

The later concerts on the Green were held in The 

[87] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Music Shed, a unique structure finished in 1910 by the 
well-known architect M. E. K. Rossiter. It has a 
seating capacity of about two thousand, and possesses 
wonderful acoustic properties. In this shed are pre- 
sented original compositions for initial rendition by 
men like Horatio Parker, George W. Chadwick, Sir 
Wm. Villien Stanford, Edgar Stillman Kelley, 
Henry F. Gilbert, Jean Sibelius, S. Coleridge-Taylor, 
Henry Hadley, Frederick A. Stock, and others. The 
orchestra consists of seventy-five musicians selected 
from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, 
and a chorus of nearly five hundred voices trained by 
Mr. Paine. Among the artists who have taken part 
in these concerts may be mentioned, Lillian Blauvelt, 
Louise Homer, Lillian Nordica, Emma Eames, 
Marie Rappold, Maud Powell, Alma Gluck, Florence 
Mulford, Margaret Keyes, Kathleen Parlow, George 
Hamlin, Herbert Witherspoon, Fritz Kreisler, Leo 
Schulz, Ernest Hutcheson, Riccardo Martin, Otto 
Stoeckert, Antonio Belluci, Edward P. Johnson, 
Herbert S. Billard, and a host of other famous artists. 
Among the conductors may be mentioned Richmond 
P. Paine, Arthur Mees, S. Coleridge-Taylor Victor 
Herbert and others. To the Norfolk Green is largely 
due the development of these great concerts which 
has made the town famous throughout the country. 
In the old historic Town Meeting House on the 

[88] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Green has been given for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury a mid-summer musical entertainment for the 
benefit of the Norfolk Home Missionary Society by 
Miss Mary Eldridge. These concerts have been en- 
joyed and appreciated by the residents of Norfolk 
who were thus afforded another exceptional oppor- 
tunity of listening to the best artists in the country. 
The list of singers and musicians at the last concert 
is an index of the character of the music and the repu- 
tation of the artists. Among the list on the pro- 
gramme are found Mme. Ernestine Schumann- 
Heink, Miss Edmond, Miss Stoddart, Miss van 
Essen, Miss Gwyn Jones, Mr. Beddoe, Mr. Thomas 
H. Thomas, Mr. Reed, Mr. Chalmers, Miss Vera 
Barstow with Mr. Charles Heinroth organist and 
conductor, Mr. Spross and Mr. Hoffmann, pianists. 
This programme is for only one of a score or more 
concerts of the same high standard and reputation. 

Besides these mid-summer concerts in the Meeting 
House on the Green, Miss Mary Eldridge has given 
other concerts at various times, much to the gratifica- 
tion and enjoyment of the village people. Among 
these may be mentioned an organ recital at which the 
famous English organist, Mr. Lamare, performed 
on the new Skinner organ, the gift of the Misses El- 
dridge. On another occasion a quartet of trumpeters 
from the Metropohtan Opera House from New York 

[89] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

City performed. These concerts are for the benefit of 
the Home Missionary Society. 

On Pahn Sunday and on Easter morning, on 
Chrismas, and on Children's Day special music is pro- 
vided in the Meeting House through the generosity 
of Miss Mary Eldridge for the enjoyment of the peo- 
ple. On Children's Day each child in the Sunday 
school is presented with a gift by Miss Mary Eldridge 
consisting of a potted plant of some beautiful flower 
which is carried home as a souvenier of the occasion. 

Still other musical concerts have been provided 
through the liberahty of Mrs. H. H. Bridgman, who 
has for many years given the people an opportunity 
to enjoy the best music in the country. These have 
of late been given in the Meeting House on Lincoln's 
birthday and some of the greatest artists of this coun- 
try and Europe have participated in them. Instru- 
mental concerts are given on the Green by Miss Mary 
Eldridge in August on Saturday afternoons, and the 
farmers as well as the residents of the village assemble 
around the Green to listen to the music. The 
Green on Christmas Eve, 1915, was the scene of an- 
other musical entertainment when the children of the 
village were all gathered together and the Christmas 
carols were simg by them under the leadership of 
Miss Kendall who deserves much praise for the mu- 
sical training of the children of the village. The cus- 

[90] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

torn of a concert on the Green is a beautiful one, and 
appreciated by the community. 

At the northeast comer of the Green is a beautiful 
vista which brings Haystack into full view. It is at 
this extreme point on the edge of the Green that the 
railroad emerges from under a bridge which crosses 
the highway and from here the station can be seen. 
This corner of the Green has been made most attrac- 
tive through the generosity and artistic taste of Miss 
Isabella Eldridge, who has placed a fine ornamental 
railing at the end of the bridge as it overhangs the 
railroad track. At each end this connects with a 
granite wall which at each extremity is carried up a 
few feet in the form of a pier upon which is mounted 
a magnificent bronze lamp of exquisite design. This 
ornamental fence, forming a guard rail on the high- 
way, is joined on its western end by a beautiful hedge 
behind which can be seen the Library, flower beds, as 
well as boxes filled with choice flowers and plants, the 
contribution of Miss Isabella Eldridge. The Library 
with its luxuriant vines, its beautiful flowers, its well 
trimmed hedges, its lovely trees, and its ever-flowing 
fountain, conspire to form with the granite wall and 
artistic balustrade and bronze lamps, a most dignified 
setting, and prevents the entrance of the railroad into 
the town and station from detracting from the beauty 
of the Green and thus demonstrates that what might 

[91] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

have been the eff acement of the Green has been made 
its most attractive feature. The long and bitter fight 
to save the Green was victorious, and Miss Isabella 
Eldridge has proved that her venerable father was 
right when he contended that it was unnecessary to 
sacrifice the Green in order to allow the railroad to 
enter the village. This corner now so beautifully 
decorated by his daughter is a monument in itself to 
his memory: it associates his name forever with the 
preservation of the Village Green. 

Through the kindness of Mrs. H. H. Bridgman, a 
beautiful community Christmas tree is yearly deco- 
rated on the Green. This Spruce tree is over eighty 
feet high, is illuminated with myriads of tiny many 
colored electric lights, and is continuously illuminated 
during the holidays. On Christmas and New Year's 
Eve cornet music is given in addition to the singing of 
carols by the children. To Mrs. Bridgman is due the 
thanks and gratitude of the children as well as the 
older folks for continuing this beautiful and quaint 
custom of old New England; it is another example 
of the generosity and liberality of the donor towards 
the people of her venerable and much beloved father's 
charge and a sacred testimony of affectionate esteem 
and regard for the people of her native town. It may 
be safely said that these ever recurring contributions 
to the happiness and welfare of the Norfolk people 

[92] 





■ 




1^ 




1 



COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATED BY MR. H. H. BRIDGMAN 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

have given her a most enviable place in the hearts of 
the little community; and this expression of her kind 
thought for her kinspeople on the Village Green adds 
a charm to the Green itself that makes the place 
sacred. 

If what the writer has said about the Green will 
inspire the present generation to venerate it, to care 
for it, to protect it, to preserve it, to beautify it, the 
object of this brief historical paper will be fulfilled. 
The inhabitants of Norfolk should inculcate in the 
minds of the younger generation a feeling of rever- 
ence for the Green, for in this way only can a spirit be 
aroused to defend to the uttermost any encroachment 
upon its sacred precincts. The Norfolk Green is 
unique in beauty and location. It has always been the 
centre of activity, has always adhered to colonial 
traditions. It behooves the people of this town, young 
and old, to protect it from any unhallowed uses. Any 
perversion of its present usefulness should be viewed 
with suspicion and any attempt to change its char- 
acter should be resisted with the same force that our 
forebears exercised to protect their homes upon the 
Green from hostile invasion of the Indians. 



[93] 



SUMMARY OF DATES OF PRINCIPAL 

EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF 

NORFOLK^ 



SUMMARY OF DATES OF PRINCIPAL 

EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF 

NORFOLK* 

1748 
Samuel Manross came from Farmington and settled 
in Norfolk erecting a log cabin on the site of the 
Meeting House. 

1749 
Edward Strickland came from Simsbury and set- 
tled in Norfolk. 

1750 
The first use of water power to run a saw mill in 
Norfolk, An act was passed ordering remainder of 
Norfolk to be sold at public auction at Middletown, 
Conn. 

1751 
Litchfield County was organized. 



* This summary of dates has been compiled from the town records, 
Crissey's and Roys's Historic, public addresses, centennial sermons, and 
diaries, — notably those of the Rev. Thomas Robbins and Mrs. John A. 
Shepherd, and Miss Isabelle Eldridge's scrapbook — and from the Win- 
stead citizen and the Hartford Courant, and from personal interviews 
with many residents of the town. 

[97] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1754 
The Assembly ordered an auction of the unsold 
part of Norfolk. 

1755 

The Enghsh planned war against the French. 

1756 
Population of town was 84. A Committee was ap- 
pointed to lay out pondage for grist mill. 

1757 
A Committee to lay out grist mill was reported, 
also a Committee was appointed to build iron works. 

1758 
The Town of Norfolk was incorporated, with twen- 
ty-seven families. The first town meeting was held 
with forty-four legal voters. The first sermon was 
preached in Norfolk by Rev. Mr. Treat at the house 
of Mr. Richards. 

1759 

The first Meeting House was begun, and Noah 
Wetmore invited to preach on probation. The first 
grist mill was built. The first Meeting House was 
raised and covered. Rev. Mr. Peck supphed the pul- 
pit. 

[98] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1760 

The town voted to hold service regularly every Sab- 
bath, a horn to be blown at stated intervals to let the 
people know the time. The church was organized 
December 24. The town voted to build a pound. 

1761 
The Rev. Ami R. Robbins was ordained as first 
minister. The Sacrament of Lord's Supper was ad- 
ministered for the first time by a regular pastor. 
About fifty families were living in town at this time. 
The first country road was built from Canaan to New 
Hartford. Articles of church government were 
adopted. 

1762 
The Rev. Mr. Robbins opened the first high school 
or academy. He married Miss EHza LeBaron of Ply- 
mouth, Mass. The town voted with Goshen to ask 
the General Assembly for liberty to hold a lottery to 
raise 100 pounds for public highways. The town 
voted to hire a man to sweep the church and shut the 
doors and windows. 

1763 

The town voted to give land to build iron works to 
be completed in 1765 ; also voted forty-five pounds in 

[99] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

lawful money for use in schooling and determined 
that town meetings should be held on the first Mon- 
day in December. 

1764 
There was no clock in Norfolk during the early 
ministry of Dr. Robbins. The time was kept by an 
hour glass. Hartford Courant only paper received. 

1765 
It was voted at town meeting to finish the Meeting 
House by a rate of two pence on the pound. The 
town voted that the rate be raised in good pine boards 
or good bar iron. 

1766 
First iron works was built in Norfolk. A pound 
was built on Giles Pettibone's land. 

1767 
Great revival of religion in Norfolk. Gallery floor 
of Meeting House was laid. The pulpit finished. The 
town voted to buy weights for a standard for the use 
of the town ; also to remove all encroachments on high- 
ways. 

1768 
It was voted that if ten or even three families set 
up a school the town would pay. 

[100] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1769 
The lower part of the Meeting House was finished 
and the Meeting House seated for the first time. It 
was voted that the pew next the pulpit on north side 
should be for Mr. Robbins. Voted rule for seating 
*'one year age shall be accounted equal to five pound 
list. Seaters shall "dignify" the seats as they shall 
think proper. 

1770 
George Whitefield preached in Norfolk and was 
guest of Rev. Mr. Robbins. It was voted to pray 
the General Assembly to build road to Canaan and to 
set up a sign post on the Green near the Meeting 
House. The church was dignified and seated. 

1771 

The galleries in Meeting House were completed, a 
cushion for the pulpit procured, the Meeting House 
painted peach-blow color. 

1772 

The town voted to continue and enforce laws pre- 
venting rams running at large on the commons and 
in the highways. 

1773 
Daniel Burr, son of Ebenezer Burr, married Betty 

[101] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Brown, daughter of Titus Brown, one of the first set- 
tlers of Norfolk and a soldier in the Revolutionary 
War. 

1774 

Centre cemetery in Norfolk was purchased. The 
population of the town was 969 with three black 
slaves. Town voted to uphold action of Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia. Ezek Wilcox died of 
smallpox. A pest house was established. It was 
voted to raise money to purchase powder. Town 
voted that it has its right to direct singing in pubhc 
worship. 

1775 

Norfolk sent twenty-four men to Lexington under 
Captain Gaylord. Choristers were chosen in town 
meeting. Selectmen voted to place a fence around 
Centre cemetery. It was voted to enlarge seats in 
gallery of church. 

1776 
Rev. Ami R. Robbins left Norfolk to be Chaplain 
of the Connecticut troops. Thomas Curtiss was killed 
in the Revolutionary War. 

1777 
Norfolk was first represented at General Assembly. 
Voted to build a school house on the Green for the 

[102] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

middle district 30 ft. long, 20 ft. wide. Fifty-six 
deaths occurred from dysentery this year. A part of 
Burgoyne's defeated army passed through Norfolk 
en route to Boston and encamped on the Green. The 
town voted to take care of families of soldiers enlisted 
in Continental Army. 

1778 
Elms were planted on Village Green. Thirty-eight 
deaths occurred this year. The town voted to agree 
to all but the eighth article of confederation proposed 
by Continental Congress. Voted that front seats in 
gallery and lower tier seats on each side be appro- 
priated to singers; and that the town treasurer shall 
pay six pounds to any person killing a wolf or panther. 

1779 
Probate district of Norfolk was established. The 
town clerk was ordered to pubhsh intentions of 
marriage. It was voted to pay wage of three pounds 
to every soldier drafted into seven months' service. 

1780 
It was voted to build a school house near Goshen, 
for the south part of the town. It was voted that sol- 
diers be exempt from raising rate and that one-half 

[103] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

rate be allowed to the poor. Voted rate be raised in 
State bills or Continental bills and to divide town into 
classes to gain men to recruit the Continental Army. 

1781 
It was voted to give each soldier seven shillings per 
month from the time he marched away to suitable 
time for return home. 

1782 
Population of town was 1,246. The militia of Nor- 
folk was divided into three companies. It was voted 
that the head constable be the crier to declare inten- 
tion of marriage. Voted to seat singers: Basses — 
Men's front gallery; Tenors — Women's front gal- 
lery; Trebble — Lower fore seats on women's side; 
Counter — Lower tier seats on Men's side. It was 
voted that the town be divided into three classes to 
provide recruits. 

1783 

A religious revival secured — thirty-three were con- 
verted. It was voted to build a school house on Titus 
Brown's farm. The children wrote on white birch, 
and ink was made from berries of sumach trees, and 
pens from goose quills. The Rev. Mr. Robbins went 
on a mission to the West. 

[104] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1784 
The revival continued — twenty-seven were con- 
verted. The town was divided into sixteen districts 
for care of highways, and voted to allow any person 
to set up horse sheds on the Green near the fences. 

1785 
The town voted to build more highways and repair 
and exchange old highways. 

1786 
The town voted to sell the three Statute books be- 
longing to it at public auction. 

1787 
The Episcopal Society was organized. Five 
wolves were killed on Haystack Mountain. E. Bal- 
com given liberty to erect a mill in the town in some 
convenient place. 

1788 
Elm trees and buttonwood trees were planted on 
the Green. Fifty-seven in all. 

1789 
Jehiel Saxton, first post rider, passed through Nor- 
folk en route from New Haven to Lenox, Mass. 

[105] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1790 
Thirty families in Norfolk raised and spun 12,000 
run of silk. Cemetery south end district was opened. 
The town ceased to superintend the choir. 

1791 

There was a great snow storm during this winter 
when the snow was six feet on the level on the Village 
Green. It was voted to supply suitable "stepping 
stones" for the Meeting House. Some large elm 
trees were planted on the Green. 

1792.. 
Mr. Joseph Battell settled in Norfolk. 

1793 

The Meeting House was painted white. The town 
voted that selectmen draw their orders on town treas- 
urer in the future. 

1794 

The tavern on the Green was built by Giles Petti- 
bone, Jr., later kept by John A. Shepard. Ebenezer 
Burr was post rider between Litchfield via Goshen, 
Norfolk, Canaan to Salisbury, Conn. Zelpah Polly 
Grant born in Grantville, Conn. 

1795 
Rev. Mr. Robbins's salary was set at 90 pounds. 

[106] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

He was sent on a mission to Vermont and Western 
New York. It was voted to purchase a piece of 
ground of Giles Pettibone for a burying place. It 
was voted that powder be bought for use on Field 
Day. 

1796 
A school society was organized and business trans- 
ferred. William Walter, one of the first Representa- 
tives, died. It was voted to choose agents to General 
Assembly; also to buy convenient place for burial 
yard at nothwesterly part of town. 

1797 
It was voted to lay tax of two cents on the dollar 
for repairing highways, a part of this tax to be paid 
in work on highways, allowing seventy-five cents per 
day from May 10 to June 15 ; fifty cents per day from 
September 15 to October 20. 

1798 
It was voted in town meeting to expend $12.00 for 
church music. James Mars, first slave sold in Nor- 
folk, was bought by Mr. Munger. Greenswood turn- 
pike was completed. It was voted to build such roads 
in the south part of town as selectmen thought neces- 
sary. 

[107] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1799 
A great revival of religion occurred. One hundred 
and sixty were added to the church. It was voted to 
erect trunpike gates (which were discontinued in 
1872), and to pay damages caused in laying out of 
road from Hartford to Sheffield. 

1800 
The revival was still in progress. A stage hne was 
inaugurated between Hartford and Albany. Joseph 
Battell leased the land and built a store on the cor- 
ner next to Shepard Hotel. It was voted to make 
arrangements for the 22nd day of February to pub- 
licly lament the death of General Washington. It 
was voted to sell part of Green to Joseph Battell. 

1801 

The Independence of the United States celebrated. 

It was voted that the town meetings be held on the 

first Monday in Novmber, and also that $40.00 be 

paid for hiring a singing master the coming winter. 

1802 
The course of the road south of Meeting House was 
established. It was voted that no person shall allow 
his or her boar to run at large under penalty of $1.67; 
that the selectmen procure a book to keep school so- 
ciety records. 

[108] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1803 
A bounty of six pence offered on every crow's head ; 
and a bounty of $1.50 on every wild cat. 

1804 

The Post Office in Norfolk was established in Ariel 
Lawrence's house. Michael Mills, the first post- 
master, died this year. 

1805 
Sixty dollars was given for church music. A 
woolen factory was established in Norfolk. It was 
voted that the seating committee give seats to all un- 
married males of 30 years of age, and to females of 
27 years, if they apply for same. 

1806 
Joseph Battell, Jr., was born in Norfolk. 

1807 
The town voted that sixty dollars be given for mu- 
sic and three cents on a dollar on lists for highways. 

1808 
It was voted that two-thirds of each man's rate 
should be worked out on highways and that seats be 
given to any poor or destitute in the church. 

[109] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1809 
The Village Green was ploughed up and levelled. 
Bounty of twenty-five cents was offered on every old 
fox and twelve and one-half cents on every young fox. 
It was voted to sell at public vendue at the sign post 
on the Green all the statutes of Connecticut. 

1810 
Number of inhabitants in town was 1,441. 

1811 
A half century anniversay sermon was preached by 
Dr. Robbins. There were 549 members of the church 
at this time and 1,277 were baptized during Rev. 
A. R. Robbins's pastorate. Committee appointed to 
ascertain the centre of the to^vn with a view to build- 
ing a new Meeting House, to be 60 feet long and 50 
feet wide with a steeple and a bell, and voted to sell 
old Meeting House and use the proceeds for painting 
new Meeting House. 

1812 

A stage line opened for travel between New York 
and Albany via Norfolk. Laura Hawley Thurston 
was born in Norfolk. 

1813 

The first Meeting House was removed. Norfolk 

[110] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Ecclesiastical Society formed from members of the 
church and society of the town. Rev. M. Robbins died 
on November 30. It was voted that a Meeting House 
be erected six feet south of the old one ; finished in the 
square body and slips. Two dollars bounty offered 
for every wild cat. 

1814 
It was voted to pay Michael F. Mills $150.00 for 
his services as agent for building Meeting House 
which was completed this year. A person was hired 
to ring church bell for services and funerals and at 
nine o'clock at night. 

1815 
It was voted to call Mr. Ralph Emerson as pastor 
of the church and society, salary to be $700.00 per 
year. It was voted that the Ecclesiastical Society 
transact its business, and not the town. Major James 
Shepard came to Norfolk. 

1816 
Lyman Beecher preached at ordination of Ralph 
Emerson. A Committee was appointed to dignify 
seats. About this time the Post Office was moved to 
the Green; Joseph Jones was the postmaster. 

[Ill] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1817 
It was voted at town meeting to build a Conference 
room on the floor above the school house of the mid- 
dle district. Constitution of the Ecclesiastical So- 
ciety was adopted. Ecclesiastical fund was started to 
defray church expenses. 

1818 
The first nuts and bolts made by machinery were 
made in Norfolk. The cemetery in South Norfolk 
was opened. 

1819 
A school house and conference on second floor was 
built where the present stone chapel now stands. The 
ofiice of Listers was discontinued when Assessors and 
Board of Relief were appointed. 

1820 
Population of town was 1,422. James Shepard 
was the first selectman. Eliza A. Shepard and who 
later married Alfred L. Dennis of Newark, N. J., 
was born. Town voted to allow Assessors seventy- 
five cents for their services. 

1821 
A four-horse stage line was established between 
New York and Albany via Norfolk. Members of 

[112] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Legislature came from New York to New Haven by 
steamboat and thence to Albany via Norfolk thus 
saving fifty miles of travelling by stage coach. A 
Sunday school was organized. 

1822 

First organ put in Congregational Church. Nor- 
folk library company formed — 142 volumes pur- 
chased. 

1823 

Joseph Battell was graduated from Middlebury 
College, Vt. 

1824 
Joseph Battell gave a sum of money to the Eccle- 
siastical Society the interest of which was $50.00 
annually for the improvement of sacred music. Zel- 
pah Polly Grant of Norfolk "was formally installed 
the first head of the first college for women in our 
country if not in the world." This was called the 
Adams Female Academy at Derry, N. H. She 
helped also to organize Mt. Holyoke Seminary and 
her pupil, Miss Lyman, was the first principal of Vas- 
sar College. 

1825^ 1^^^ 
A gold cross was placed on the steeple of the Meet- 
ing House, a most unusual procedure for a Congrega- 

[113] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

tional church. This cross is said to have been pre- 
sented by the Rev. Thomas Robbins. 

1826 
Association for prohibition of sacred music in con- 
nection with County organizations. Ex-President 
John Quincy Adams and ex-President Thomas Jef- 
ferson died same day and that day was the Fourth of 
July. 

1827 
Mr. Frederick M. Shepard was bom. A great 
revival of rehgion occurred under Rev. Dr. Ralph 
Emerson. It was voted to restrain all animals from 
loinning wild. 

1828 
Thirty heads of families reside in town who were 
descendants of the original forty-four in 1758. Miss 
Alice Welch kept a select school in the Conference 
room. The number of highway districts was increased 
to twenty-two. 

1829 
The Rev. Mr. Emerson was elected a Professor in 
Andover Theological Seminary. Miss Welch left 
Norfolk to teach in Mr. Jos. Emerson's school in 
Byfield, Massachusetts. Branch of the Litchfield 
County Temperance Society organized in Norfolk. 

[114] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1830 

Captain John Dewel built his stone house and 
scythe shop in West Norfolk. 

1831 

The Battell store was burglarized, $1,500 stolen 
by Barzel Treat. Society was instructed to buy two 
box stoves to heat the Meeting House. Another re- 
vival of religion. It was voted that selectmen con- 
tract for whole support of town poor. 

1832 
The Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge was ordained pas- 
tor April 25th. Nathaniel Roys died in his 100th 
year. 

1833 

Mr. Israel Crissey died. A $5 bounty was offered 
on a wild cat. It was voted that the town procure a 
hearse and a harness, and suitable building where they 
were to be kept. 

1834 
Blinds were put on the Meeting House windows. 

1835 

A petition was signed by 379 persons against spirit 
licenses. 

[115] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1836 
Introduction of Catholicity in Norfolk, Ct. Gen- 
eral Association of Connecticut met here on June 
21st. M. and M. C. Ryan began business as mer- 
chants. 



1837 
Odessa wheat was brought to Norfolk and made 
into flour. A town deposit fund was established and 
it was voted that the selectmen add ten feet on west 
side of bridge in centre near Jas. Shepard's if they 
shall think proper. 

1838 

Norfolk was made a probate district and was sep- 
arated from Winchester and Colebrook. It was voted 
at town meeting that the surplus fund was to be used 
half for school and half for ordinary expenses of town. 

1839 

Mr. Robbins Battell graduated from Yale College. 
Norfolk Academy organized, John F. Norton, prin- 
cipal. The custom of raising the monument on Hay- 
stack Mountain was abandoned this year. The town 
voted a license to James and John A. Shepard, tavern 
keepers, to sell wines and spirituous liquors. 

[116] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1840 
First abolition vote cast in Norfolk. Mr. Warren 
Cone sold his business of making scythes to Mr. Wil- 
lard Dutton. The present Academy bought at a cost 
of $2,000 on east side of Green. Town meeting to be 
held first Monday in October. 

1841 
Joseph Battell died. The Methodist Episcopal 
church was built. Twenty-one abohtion votes cast in 
town. Twenty-five members added to the church 
under Dr. Eldridge's pastorate. Alfred L. Dennis 
married to Eliza A. Shepard in the Meeting House on 
the Green. 

1842 
Zelpah Polly Grant married to Hon. Wm. B. Ban- 
nister. Committee was appointed to build chimneys 
in the Meeting House. Town voted to prohibit fish- 
ing with a seine — penalty $10. 

1843 

Huntington & Day built their puddling forge 
on Blackberry River. Wm. Lawrence built a store 
on northeast corner of Green. Town voted to assess 
the real estate of the town anew and to survey the 
Centre Pubhc Green and establish permanent bounds. 

[117] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1844 
Centennial address was given by Rev. Thos. Rob- 
bins, D.D. Auren Roys History of Norfolk was 
published, from which many facts have been gleaned 
for this Summary. 

1845 
A woollen manufactory was started by J. & E. E. 
Ryan and J. S. Kilbourn & Son. 

1846 
Extensive alterations were made in the Meeting 
House. Mr. Wm. B. Rice began teaching in acad- 
emy. People left Norfolk early in the morning and 
reached New York for supper, taking train at 
Canaan. Town meeting held in Meeting House until 
1846; after this date they were held in town hall. 

1847 
The Strong fund was made to the town with select- 
men as trustees. 

1848 
Mr. Wm. Lawrence, partner of Jos. Battell, sold 
his store and moved to Northampton, Mass. The 
town voted to pay half the expenses incurred in paint- 
ing the Academy. 

[118] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1849 
Miss Margaret Nettleton opened her private school. 
Mr. Robbins Battell married Miss Ellen R. Mills, of 
Newark, N. J. The town voted to enclose pubhc 
Green with a fence, also to build a suitable fence and 
gates for Centre burying ground. 

1850 
The Ryans built a four-story factory. Trees were 
set out on the Green, consisting of one of each kind 
of native trees, by Wm. B. Rice. The town voted to 
build a road across the meadows from the sand bank 
to the grist mill. This road passes in front of the 
Norfolk Agricultural Fair grounds. Prof. Wilham 
H. Welch born in Norfolk, Ct. 

1851 
Population 1,641. It was voted to authorize com- 
mittee to pay $500 for new organ. 

1852 
Mr. A. L. Dennis rebuilt the Dennison house and 
was the first summer resident of Norfolk. The sec- 
ond organ placed in the Congregational church. Mr. 
Jos. Battell gave $200 toward the $500. Post office 
was kept for a while in Shepard's Tavern until this 
year, when it was moved into the store adjoining. 
M. H. Mills was the postmaster. 

[119] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1853 
Church granted Rev. Dr. Eldridge permission to 
go to Europe. Horse block placed near the Meeting 
House. Hoe shop built on Patmos Island by W. B. 
Stevens and A. P. Lawrence. John B. Gough, the 
great temperance orator, delivered an address on this 
subject in the Meeting House. The town voted to 
alter the fence on the Green so that the east line of 
the same be shortened one length, making the south 
line nearly straight. 

1854 
Welaka Woolen Mills Company organized, with 
Dr. W. W. Welch as President; also Lawrence Ma- 
chine Co. W. E. Dennis was born in the house which 
subsequently became the Parsonage on the Green 
until about 1915. Town voted that the grass in pub- 
lic Green be sold at pubhc auction. Mr. Joseph 
Battell gave $5,000 to establish a fund for music in 
Yale College. 

1855 
The S. D. Northway Manufacturing Company was 
organized at South Norfolk, capital $25,000. Under 
President Pierce's administration the Post Office was 
moved to a point midway between the Green and the 
city, so called, nearly opposite the present office. Sign 
posts were erected at West and South Norfolk. 

[120] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1856 
South Norfolk became a thriving village. The 
Norfolk bank was chartered with $100,000; Jas. H. 
Shepard started business in Stevens's block. 

1857 
Dissolution of firm of Ryans, woollen manufac- 
turers, occurred. Great religious revival took place 
in Norfolk. Norfolk bank building was finished. The 
town voted to purchase a cottage stove for use in 
Town Hall. 

1858 
A great celebration was held August 17th on ac- 
count of the laying of the Atlantic cable and the 
reception of a message from the Queen of England. 
Mr. Rice left Norfolk to live in Pittsfield, Mass. 

1859 ^/l^f 

Mr. Joshua Moses, Jr., built a log house on the site 
which is at present the residence of Dr. Frederic S. 
Dennis. The church of the Lnmaculate Conception 
was built. 

1860 
Population of the town was 1,802. The Norfolk 
Savings Bank was incorporated. The town voted to 
enlarge Centre Cemetery. 

[121] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1861 
Post Office moved into a store on the Green for 
some eight years. Rev. Jos. Eldridge preached on the 
subject "Does the Bible Sanction Slavery?" The 
funeral of Samuel Mills occurred. The funeral of the 
first Norfolk soldier who died in the Civil War. Asa 
G. Pettibone was elected President of the Norfolk 
bank. Fort Sumter fired on and the flag hauled down. 
Eliza Dennis born in the house which later became 
the parsonage, now the residence of Rev. Wm. F. 
Stearns. 

1862 

The Litchfield County Regiment enhsted for Civil 
War; Norfolk boys were in this regiment. 

1863 
The Norfolk and New Brimswick Hosiery Co. was 
organized and put in full operation. 

1864 
Corporal G. H. Pendleton died as a result of bullet 
wound at Winchester, Va. Adjutant Samuel C. Bar- 
num died as a result of a bullet wound. 

1865 
Miss Lyman, a pupil of Zelpah Polly Grant of 
Norfolk, became the fil'st principal of Vassar College. 

[ 122 ] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Grandman Welch, who was the first superintendent 
of the Sunday school, resigned and Miss Anna Battel! 
succeeded her in that office. The flag on Fort Sumter 
was raisped. Lee surrendered. Lincoln was assas- 
sinated. 

1866 
Mr. Eldridge's salary was raised to $1,500 per an- 
num. Oliver B. Butler died. The ringing of the noon 
and the nine o'clock bell in the Meeting House was 
discontinued about this time. 

1867 
Mrs. Jonathan Pettibone, daughter of Hopestill 
Welch, died. 

1868 
The soldiers' monument placed on Green. Major 
Bushnell Knapp died in liis 92d year. 

1869 
The town voted to issue bonds not to exceed $41,500 
for the incorporation of Connecticut Western Rail- 
road Company. 

1870 
The Norfolk Bank went into liquidation. The 
present Meeting House narrowly escaped destruction 

[ 123 ] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

by a fire under the gallery. The Rev. Dr. Joseph 
Eldridge made his famous speech in defence of the 
Village Green from appropriation by the railroad 
company. 

1871 
Capt. John Dewell died. The first train passed 
through Norfolk at highest point in the State for a 
railroad. The Norfolk people were scandalized by 
the passage through town on Sunday of a construc- 
tion train. 

1872 
Collection of toll at toll-gate at West Norfolk dis- 
continued. J. N. Cowles and J. B. Eldridge formed 
a partnership and carried on a banking business. First 
milk train passed through Norfolk. 

1873 
The Norfolk Silk Company was organized on Pat- 
mos Island. 

1874 
Death of Joseph Battell, Jr., also Zelpah Polly 
Grant. Dr. Eldridge tendered his resignation as 
pastor on account of ill health and was honorably dis- 
missed. The Stevens block was enlarged and became 

[124] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

the Stevens Hotel this year. Mr. Joseph Battell 
gave by bequest $200,000 to build Battell Chapel, 
Yale College. 

1875 
Death of Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge occurred 
March 31st. First sale of seats in church was held. 
Centre cemetery was enlarged. 

1876 
Rev. John Gleason installed as pastor. Mrs. 
Larnard gave an organ to Yale College for the Battell 
Chapel. 

1877 
Mr. Robbins Battell and Miss Anna Battell estab- 
lished a Professorship of American History. Confer- 
ence room remodeled at expense of $450. 

1878 
Mrs. Jos. Eldridge died June 6th. Aetna Silk 
Company was formed. Norfolk chimes were pre- 
sented by Mr. Robbins Battell. 

1880 

Levi Shepard died, at the age of 95 ; also Chas. M. 
Ryan. Population of town, 1,418. The inscription 

[125] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

was placed on elm at corner of Green by Rev. J. A. 
Gleason. Extensive church repairs were made and 
stained glass windows and memorial tablets added. 

1881 
Free library established in Mr. G. W. Scoville's 
house by Miss Isabella Eldridge. Mrs. A. L. Dennis 
died in Newark, N. J. 

1882 
Mr. Thos. Tibbals, grandfather of Capt. Auren 
Tibbals, died. 

1883 
The town voted to construct stone bridge over the 
brook near Sam Canfield's house, not to exceed 
$1,000. 

1884 
The Robbins school opened this year. It was 
founded by Anna and Robbins Battell. The present 
village hall was built. Dillers cornet octet from New 
York gave a concert on the Green. 

1885 
The old store on the northeast corner of the Green 
built by Wm. Lawrence collapsed and fell to ruins. 
Rev. John De Peu acting pastor. 

[126] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1886 
Rev. John De Peu was installed pastor of the 
church in Norfolk. A tower was built on Haystack 
Mountain, and also a carriage road, by Mr. Robbins 
Battell. A new centre school house was built on City 
meadows. 



1887 
Robbins Battell bought out the corporation which 
owned the academy. The old conference room build- 
ing torn down to make room for the present stone 
chapel. Dr. L. Duncan Bulkley purchased his farm 
in Norfolk. 

1888 
The year of the great blizzard ; snow from four to 
six feet on the level, and in drifts eighteen to twenty 
feet on the Green. Dedication of Battell Chapel. 

1889 
Miss Anna Battell died. Miss Mary Eldridge be- 
came Lady Superintendent of the Sunday school. 
Opening of the new library by Miss Isabel Eldridge. 
A memorial fountain was built on south end of the 
Green by Miss Mary Eldridge in memory of Mr. Jos. 
Battell. Mr. D. H. Rowland built his summer home. 

[ 127 ] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

1890 
Mr. Alfred L. Dennis died in Newark, N. J. The 
population of Norfolk was 1,546. A new lodge was 
built at Lake Wangum. Dr. E. H. Peaslee pur- 
chased the land upon which he later built his summer 
home. Mr. Theo. Lyman and Prof. Edw. Williams 
built their summer homes. 

1891 

Frederick S. Spaulding, editor of the Norfolk 
Tower, died. First full report of the Norfolk library 
was made by Edw. E. Swift, who stated that over 
22,000 visitors had been in the building and that over 
10,000 volumes were in circulation. Prof. G. J. 
Stoeckel's colonial house built on the Litchfield road. 
Mr. R. A. Dorman built his summer home. 

1892 
Opening of Eldridge Gymnasium. Third organ 
put in Congregational Church, presented by Miss 
Sara B. Eldridge. The church gallery was enlarged. 
Road built on Crissey Hill. Dr. Frederic S. Dennis 
purchased his farm on Litchfield Road. 

1893 
Presentation of a lot to the Episcopal Society for a 
church by Frederick M. Shepard. The Norfolk water 

[128] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

works were incorporated. A medal was awarded to 
Mrs. J. C. Kendall by Columbian Exposition for pho- 
tographs of Norfolk. Mr. Eugene Smith built his 
house and Mr. Charles L. Mead purchased his resi- 
dence, which is now occupied by his son, Mr. Larkin 
G. Mead. 

1894 
The Bassett house, on the land between the El" 
dridge property and the Chapel, was purchased and 
torn down by the Misses Eldridge. Grant Street was 
opened. Prof. Frank Goodnow, President Johns 
Hopkins University, built his residence on Litchfield 
Road ; also Wm. H. Moseley, on Laurel Way. 

1895 
Mr. Robbins Battell, who was called the father of 
modern Norfolk, died. 

1896 
Hiram P. Lawrence was elected President of the 
Norfolk bank. The water supply was in operation. 
The Bridgman house on Fox Hill was built. Mr. 
McLean assumed the management of the Hillhurst 
Hotel. 

1897 
Philhp Battell died. Thurston's block was torn 
down. Rev. John De Peu resigned his pastorate and 

[129] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Rev. Wm. F. Stearns was installed as pastor. Golf 
grounds were opened by Miss Isabella Eldridge. The 
Haystack belevedere blown down. The first meeting 
of the Litchfield University Club was held. Prof. 
M. I. Pupin purchased his farm and Mr. Chas. A. 
Spoifard built his summer residence. 

1898 
Ralph I. Crissey was elected President of the bank. 
A lot was purchased by Catholic Society for the ceme- 
tery. Terrible ice storm. A large elm on the Green 
spht in the middle, and one-half fell on the Town 
Hall. Norfolk streets lighted by electricity. New 
railway station was built. 

1899 
A sewer district was formed and the work com- 
pleted. Norfolk library celebrated the tenth anni- 
versary. The first home missionary concert was held 
in the church. Rev. Dr. Chas. P. Thompson pur- 
chased the Knapp house. Mr. C. M. Howard bought 
the Cooper farm and Dr. Theodore W. Moses his 
place on Litchfield Road. 

1900 
Mr. Norman Riggs died. A memorial tablet to 
Miss Sara Eldridge placed on panel of the organ in 

[130] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

the church. Litchfield choral union was organized. 
Mr. Winthrop Cone built his residence on Litchfield 
Road. 

1901 
Funeral of Mr. Joseph Battell Eldridge was held 
in the Congregational church. Collar Bros.' store, be- 
tween the library and the bridge, was sold. 

1902 
A volunteer fire department was organized. Prof. 
H. A. Todd, of Columbia University, purchased 
Crissey Hill. 

1903 

Matthew Higgins, a hero of the Crimean War, died. 
He belonged to the Queens Guard, and was supposed 
to be the only survivor from Connecticut. Dr. Wm. 
Porter altered the Frederick Porter house and became 
a summer resident. 

1904 
Collar Bros, store was torn down on the northeast 
corner of the Green. A retaining wall was built and 
iron railing and posts given by Miss Isabella Eldridge. 
Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel gave the first concert in 
new music shed, the occasion being the anniversary of 
their wedding. A kindergarten was added to the 

[ 131 ] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Centre school. A sun dial was placed on the Memo- 
rial Fountain on the Green. Mrs. Haddock pur- 
chased land on Litchfield Road, and later built her 
present residence. Mr. A. I. Smith built his house. 

1905 
Mark Twain spent the summer in Norfolk. He 
occupied the Breitengier house, which subsequently 
burned down ; later a bungalow was built by Rev. Mr. 
Oldham on the old site in 1916. Mr. Chas. Bigelow 
purchased the Brown farm and built his beautiful 
house; also Dr. E. Harlow bought the Rev. Dr. Bliss's 
house. 

1906 
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the 
library by Miss Isabella Eldridge was celebrated. 
Mr. Chas. Hopkins Clark of Hartford lectured on the 
Phihppines. Mr. Barnard purchased the land upon 
which the house now stands, occupied by Mrs. Bar- 
nard and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Knox. Mrs. Jones 
purchased Mostly Hall, now owned and occupied by 
Mrs. Flagg and Mr. and Mrs. Carroll Post. 

1907 
Fire Chief Croker and Dr. H. M. Archer visited 
Norfolk to inspect and instruct the fire department. 

[132] 



THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

Prof. Gustave Stoeckel died. Mr. Frederick M. 
Shepard gave a fire bell to Norfolk. Hon. Robbins 
Battell Stoeckel purchased and built his house on 
Litchfield Road; also Dr. Edward Quintard pur- 
chased his summer residence. 

1908 
Mr. Frederic C. Walcott purchased the Burr farm. 
Deacon and Mrs. Seldon celebrated the fiftieth anni- 
versary of their marriage. A stone bungalow was 
built on Dennis Hill, commanding a magnificent view 
of the surrounding country. It was designed by Mr. 
Taylor, a resident of Norfolk. Mrs. N. H. Jenkins 
built her bungalow, and Miss Elsie Farnum built her 
summer house on Litchfield Road, and Rev. H. E. 
Adriance purchased his residence. 

1909 
The Norfolk library celebrates its twentieth anni- 
versary. Concerts on the Green Saturday afternoons 
during July and August were given by Miss Mary 
Eldridge. Hon. Judge H^ Albert Jenks purchased 
his house on Greenwoods Road. CU-PT\X--t^-\ 

1910 

The Norfolk Agricultural Association was organ- 
ized by Mrs. Frederic S. Dennis, who was elected 

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THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

President, and held its first fair. Mr. H. H. Bridg- 
man was elected President of the Board of Trustees 
of Hartford Theological Seminary. Church organ 
was remodelled and enlarged. The church observed 
its 150th anniversary. The Shepard building was 
erected and is now occupied by Brown Company. 

1911 
Miss Isabel Goodnow, daughter of President Frank 
Goodnow, of Johns Hopkins University, was married 
in Norfolk. 

1912 

Money was subscribed for new public school for 
Norfolk on site of Myron Clark's store. Geo. B. Case 
of New York purchased Sunset Ridge farm. Boy 
Scouts were organized in Norfolk under Major W. E. 
Dennis, Jr., an officer of the American Boy Scouts. 
Band concert was given on the Green by band of 
10th Cavalry, U. S. Army, while passing through 
Norfolk. Country Club was organized and occupied 
the gymnasium building. Dr. J. N. Teeter built his 
summer home. 

1913 

Two artificial lakes were constructed by Geo. B. 
Case and F. C. Walcott and Starling Childs. James 

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THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

B. Mabon, a summer resident, was elected President 
of the New York Stock Exchange. Ex-President 
and Mrs. Taft visited Norfolk as guests of Dr. and 
Mrs. Frederic S. Dennis. Frederick M. Shepard 
died. Amos Barnes purchased the Thompson house 
for his summer residence. 

1914 

The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
Litchfield County Medical Society was held in Nor- 
folk Country Club and a reception was given by Dr. 
Dennis at his bungalow, at which Ex-President Taft 
and Professor Wm. H. Welch were present as guests. 
New public school was finished. The first Community 
Christmas on the Green. Mrs. Sarah Pettibone and 
her daughter, Miss Helen, moved into the house now 
known as "The Willows," at the foot of the Green and 
on the site of this house stood the Miss Margaret Net- 
tleton school, where formerly Major James Shepard 
lived when he came to Norfolk in 1815. 

1915 

Governor Holcomb of Connecticut and Mr. How- 
ard Elliott, President of the New York, New Haven 
and Hartford Railway Company, were invited guests 
to the Norfolk Agricultural Fair, of which Mrs. 
Frederic S. Dennis is President. Mr. Elliott came 

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THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 

in a special train. Governor Holcomb and Mr. Elliott 
addressed the farmers of Litchfield County and his 
guests. Rev. Wm. F. Stearns resigned. "Fete of 
all nations" held on grounds of Mr. and Mrs. Carl 
Stoeckel. Rev. John Barstow acting pastor. Nor- 
folk Manufacturing Company organized in the old 
Centre school in the meadows. Second Community 
Christmas Tree was decorated on the Green. 

1916 

The Agricultural Fair was not held this year owing 
to the epidemic of infantile paralysis throughout the 
State and country. A grandstand was presented to 
the association, a gift from Mr. Thomas Cochran, of 
the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co. 

I 1917 

I Mrs. Frederic S. Dennis resigned the Presidency 

of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, and Mr. Theron 
Rockwell was elected to the office of President. El- 
dridge Bridgman, Edwin H. Adriance and James B. 
'^^\ iB>abon, Jr., went to France to serve in the American 
Ambulance Corps in the great European war — young 
men of whom Norfolk is justly proud. 



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THE NORFOLK VILLAGE GREEN 



ELEVATIONS ABOUT NORFOLK 

Bear Mountain 2,354 feet 

Mt. Bradford 1,930 feet 

Bald Mountain 1,763 feet 

Mohawk Mountain 1,653 feet 

Ivy Mountain 1,633 feet 

Hay Stack Mountain 1,633 feet 

Dutton Hill 1,632 feet 

Dennis Hill 1,620 feet 

Summit R. R. Station 1,336 feet 
(Highest R. R. point in Connecticut) 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



III 
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014 076 172 2 



